Meru Women’s Garden Project in 2018

The agricultural training that forms the core of The Meru Women's Garden Project of our women's groups is ongoing until graduation in April. A delegation of Soroptimists will be visiting the community in April to meet the women of Meru and attend the graduation, we're so excited to finally bring these amazing groups of women together. 

In June, we plan to begin mother’s nutritional training for the groups, giving new mums the training they've asked for that will help them keep their children well nourished and healthy. 

In August we'll be running more forums designed to tackle the practice of femal genital multilation in the community - an alternative rights of passage session for girls, and an awareness session for boys. Having struggled with attendance at previous boys' forums in December, the team are already working closely with our partners at CIFORD to ensure attendance is high for both workshops this time around. It's clear to us that engaging young men is a vital part of tackling this damaging cultural practice. 

Following the fantastic success of the Soroptimists' recent fundraising, and problematic weather hitting the gardens of Meru hard this year, we hope to fund a borehole for the community. This would provide a reliable source of water at an up-front cost of around £25k, and we're currently investigating the optimum location. The borehole would have a transformative effect on the community's fortunes and we're all very excited about this addition to the programme!

We look forward to working with the inspirational women of Soroptimist UK and Meru Womens Groups, to achieve all this and more in 2018. As always, if you're planning some fundraising or would like some more info on Meru, I would like to hear from you (amanjit@child.org).

Read more about the Meru Women's Garden Project.

Read about our plans for HealthStart in 2018.

Read about our plans for our brand new baby box programme in 2018.