Water Sanitation and Hygiene
Clean water and sanitation is central to almost every aspect of SOLO’S work. Our campaign and humanitarian response is to help families get access to clean water and reduce environmental health risk by managing sanitation safely. We believe clean water and clean environment shouldn’t be a luxury. It has to be available to everyone regardless of where they live but unfortunately lack of clean water and basic sanitation skill kills more people each year than all forms of violence. We work towards eradicating that.
Even at the cost of quadrupling our work, SOLO aims to ensure communities especially the less disadvantaged ones get access to clean water and sanitation skills. The organization outlines how its efforts and community support can help prevent death due to diseases like typhoid and cholera.
- Our team made sure a good number of children and families were provided with tools and education to develop sustainable water, hygiene and sanitation solutions.
- Built toilets and hand washing station after engaging with local leaders to choose the solutions that best serve their community.
- Provided critical resources and ensured adequate hygiene is a pillar.
- Worked with different partners and brought clean water to nearly 100,000 people In different countries.
- Distributed over 100 water filters and launched health education programs.
- Built affordable locally-owned water systems for communities in Kismayo.
- Encouraged students to start clubs about clean water and sanitation skills.
Education
Having a solid education creates a safer world to live in. Education is the difference between being an informed, enlightened individual and being incapable of discerning what is wrong from what is right. We advocate for access to education irrespective of gender, caste and religion. It is a vital need that paves the way for people. Its merits are both societal and individual. Educated society are civic involved.
SOLO in partnership with French embassy held a project i.e education for Girls and Women in Garrisa County.
The project met its objectives:
- Contributed to an ongoing transformation of poor communities in Garrisa County by improving girls’ participation in education and empowering young women to improve their daily lives and play an active and positive role in the society.
- The project resulted an increase participation in education and access to health and hygiene by improving distance and digital skills for 300 girls in selected primary schools in garrisa county.
- Raised the literacy, vocational skills, and business skills levels of 50 young women in Garrisa County.
- Increased the number of teachers conducting distance learning through digital tools
- Increased the number of girls and young women in Garrisa Town sub-county accessing learning through digital tools and resources
- More women, girls and boys acquired awareness and knowledge of preventive hygiene measures, women’s rights and information on sexual health.
- The project tackled a percentage of the high unemployment rate in Garrisa by providing vocational training which empowered them economically.
Health and Nutrition
Good nutrition lowers the risk of certain illnesses and leads to longevity. We advocate for a healthy life cycle and curb malnutrition by ensuring everyone has the right to secure their own healthy nutrition in a sustainable way.
Where prevention falls short, SOLO prioritizes the early detection, treatment and care of malnourished children to help them survive, recover, and go on to live healthy and productive lives.
Through nutrition programmes, we reached vulnerable crisis-affected communities in undeserved hard-to-reach locations. SOLO provided comprehensive health care services through 1 fixed site and 5 mobile sites covering 12 villages in Kismayo.
- The team also provided equitable access to quality lifesaving curative nutrition services among boys and girls (06-59) months and PLW through systematic identification, referral and treatment of acutely malnourished cases.
- To improve infection, prevention and hospital waste management, SOLO constructed incinerators and placenta pits to ensure medical waste and products conception are managed properly.
- We also instituted sites that provided comprehensive nutrition promotion and curative services such as screening, management, referral and follow up children 6-59 months with acute malnutrition, strengthening community health system for health and nutrition to carry out community mobilization and referral functions.
- The operated sites also provided a comprehensive maternal and child health care services to pregnant women more so those from vulnerable and marginalised households.
- SOLO instituted health care centre that provided basic emergency obstetric and new born care (BEmONC) services 24/7 to reduce complications resulting from unskilled deliveries. A good number of mothers accessed to skilled delivery at the facility.
- Trained a good number of male and female community health workers and equipped them technical skills in community mobilization, promotion, communication, data collection and reporting. They were also trained to support community-based IYCF activities.
- To improve child health,3110 children 6-59 months were dewormed at the mobile unit sites and the health centre. It was preceded with by community sensitization.
Cash transfer and Market Development
When disaster strikes money is often the first thing people need to buy food or pay for temporary accommodation to get out of harm’s way. We shore up affected areas where markets are functioning but people can’t afford to buy food. When vulnerable households are provided with purchasing power, they make choices that improve their well-being and are less likely to sacrifice one basic need to meet the other.
SOLO seeks to reach certain target to reduce deprivation and improve the lives of children and families. SOLO held a project I.e business development support to youth and women in kismayo.
Through the project,
- 200 youth and women were trained in business idea generation and supported with grants ranging from USD800 to USD1,500 and mentored to grow their businesses.
- 900 households benefitted from cash for work and unconditional cash support to help drought affected communities to recover.
- Productive infrastructure Was rehabilitated to support pastrolists to build resilience.
- 828 workers rehabilitated water catchments and bunds through cash for work while another 112HHs received unconditional cash transfers.
- Helped business leaders to constantly seek to expand their businesses and improve top and bottom line performance.
- SOLO helped local community companies develop and implement growth strategies including start-up companies with little or no commercial capability.
- SOLO identifies the distinctive capability of the community enterprises and works on positioning them to reach new customers.
- Our team educated the community to discover and develop opportunities, evaluate financial issues and develop a market entry strategy.
- We trained men and women to do primary and secondary market research, gap analysis and we worked hand in hand with them to execute the agreed market development strategy ensuring them to realize maximum value from their investment.
- We also created competitive environment in the local markets by giving them the power to come up with a careful market development plan that starts with uncovering customer needs and ends with a well-though-out that is ready for execution using the right approach.
Sustainable Livelihoods and Food Security
Sustainable livelihood and food security are co-dependent. Access to food on a periodic basis is stability. Due to prolonged drought, food prices at local markets became too expensive for families to afford. People are then forced to resort to negative coping mechanisms like selling their household appliances, cutting back on meals, and taking children out of school. SOLO aligns its activity to eradicate that. We help in improving efficiency and integration of domestic food and reduce barriers to food trade. Our team aids in strengthening safety nets to ensure that vulnerable families have access to food.
- SOLO, in collaboration with the county governments of Garissa and Tana River, and with funding from @FAOKenya, carried out a slaughter destocking intervention activity meant to provide immediate access to food and income for drought affected communities in both counties.
- In the programme, 2000 households from Garissa and another 2000 from Tana River were given cash in exchange for 2000 healthy animals each at Ksh 4000, which were then slaughtered and meat distributed to 2000 vulnerable households in both counties.
- The programme provided relief meat to communities in danger of starvation and purchased livestock from farmers to prevent them from incurring losses.
- SOLO also in partnership with IFAD/SSG held a project I.e. building back better which; 240 young were employed as village based advisers (VBAs) to provide training and supply inputs to targeted beneficiaries in jubaland,Hirshabelle and south west states.
- 24,000 farmers and agro-pastoralists reached through (VBAs) to increase the productivity.
- 24,000 small packs of seeds distributed to farmers and agro-pastoralists.
Humanitarian Assistance, Response and Preparedness
Our aim is to ensure that the strategic direction and required building blocks for an eventual response are in place. This is a key step in the humanitarian program cycle. The preparedness include Context analysis, planning, gap identification, partnership development and coordination. This articulates how to respond to the assessed and expressed needs of the affected population.
- SOLO enhances education and skills training opportunities for children, youth and adults and strengthens educational systems and livelihood standards of communities.
- Promotes sustainable food security and income generation through improved crop production, animal husbandry, infrastructure rehabilitation, cash-based livelihood interventions, improved markets and market chain linkages.
- Improves access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities and facilitates acceptable standards of humanitarian services for displaced persons, refugees and vulnerable host communities.
- Promotes improved access to primary health and nutrition services for the conflict, drought and disease stricken communities.
- Conducts anticipatory action to mitigate the expected effects of below-average rainfall on food security and livelihoods in north-eastern Kenya, funded by UNFAO, 2021.
- Strengthens the livestock market systems in Garissa County through value chain approach, ILO, 2021/2022.
- Safeguards livestock-based livelihoods of Desert Locust invasion-affected households in Garissa in partnership with FAO (2020/2021).
- Provision of Mobilization and Support to Desert Locust Ground Management Activities in Mandera, Wajir, Garissa and Tana River Counties supported by UNFAO,(2020)
- Institutional capacity of SOLO, French Embassy, 2019/2020.
- Business Development Support for Youth and Women supported by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) (2020).
- Income Generation Support for Vulnerable Women Groups also supported by GIZ (2019-2020).
- Campaign against harmful traditional practices focusing on total Abandonment of female genital mutilation (FGM) supported by UNFPA, 2019/2020.
Protection and Human Rights
We believe it is possible to create a world where child protection is strictly observed under it’s principles and acts like rape, early marriage, GVB cease and we won’t stop until we witness that. We empower women to claim their rights and prop up the affected civilians. Protection is a right not a privilege.
Peace Building and Conflict Resolution
Peace building in a wider sense is a process that facilitates the establishment of a durable peace and tries to prevent the recurrence of violence by addressing root causes and effects of conflict through reconciliation. A common and coherent peace building strategy is not only a framework to achieve peace but also works as a tool to evaluate the state of the piece building process along the way. It becomes strategic when it works over the long run and at all levels of society to establish and sustain relationships among people. Our primary aim of advocacy is to foster public policies that are supportive to the solution of an issue.