NGO for Child and Youth Care, Health, Gender Equality, Economic Empowerment, Climate Change Mitigation and Smiles! :)
Currently, more than 22.000 orphans and vulnerable children are under our care. Make Me Smile Kenya is a non-profit making organization NGO with a holistic approach to sustainable development cooperation established in 2009 in Kisumu, western Kenya. We work towards promotion of health and development of adolescent girls and young people through programming, policy advocacy and capacity building. Since inception, through our involvement with government structures as well as all relevant actors, we have significantly contributed towards improved livelihoods for adolescents' reproductive health. We have established ourself as a key implementor in adolescent youth sexual and reproductive health (AYSRH) rights programming and advocacy in Kisumu county, Kenya. Over the years, we have developed strong behavior change communication background developing and utilizing innovative communication tools and approaches in line with the Ministry of Health (MOH) and Directorate of Children Services (DCS). Today, our three focus areas contribute to seven of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
1.) Child and youth welfare by strengthening families
In 2008 we founded the Children’s home Miwani, where 10 girls orphaned by HIV/AIDS find a loving home. In 2012, our cooperation with USAID began and with it over 30,000 children are regularly visited and cared for by one of our 600 Child and Youth Care workers. The children are either affected by extreme poverty, suffer from a serious chronic disease (especially HIV) or/and have lost one or both parents. Through the promotion of education, health and psychosocial support services, awareness raising, the protection of children’s rights as well as projects for economic strengthening and innovative agriculture, the children are supported holistically and the families are accompanied into independence and self-sufficiency in the long run. As an economic strengthening initiative, we have been founding village savings and loaning clubs since 2012, which meanwhile have more than 2000 members who gained access to microcredits and the possibility to receive interest on their savings.
2.) Gender equality
In the DREAMS project (Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored, and Safe women) an ambitious partnership aimed at reducing rates of HIV among adolescent girls and young women between 9-24 years. So far we have trained and supported over 16,000 girls and young women in the areas of entrepreneurship and reproductive health between 2015 and 2018. Since 2017, we have been working closely with the Austrian Development Agency to promote gender equality and counter gender-based violence through a wide range of interventions. So far 24,500 people have been reached and the program was extended for another 3 years from September 2020-2023. Through trainings, adolescents, men, women, village elders and police officers are informed about women’s rights and integrated into an intervention program. The training of paralegals enables us to accompany victims in the region through the stages of appeal, to support them professionally and thus help them achieve justice.
3.) Health
In order to improve medical care, Make Me Smile has built a health center in the region, which is now run in cooperation with the government. Since 2019, up to 100 people are counseled and treated daily. Since 2017 (and till 2023 ) we are implementing a program in cooperation with the Austrian Development Agency with a special focus on reproductive health, family planning, contraception, safe motherhood and HIV prevention. Community Health Workers, teachers and students, Male Champions, Youth Advocates as well as health care professionals for youth friendly centres and hospitals are trained to educate people in their respective communities and induce necessary structural social changes. In schools, we provide young people with a comprehensive understanding of reproductive health, contraception and HIV prevention at an early age through the training of health teachers and participatory educative theatre plays. Two youth friendly centres were established by us to provide young people with anonymous and free access to contraceptives and counseling from trained nurses on reproductive health. In political workshops, people are informed about their rights in order to articulate their demands in dialogues with political representatives.
