Students from the “Images of a Continent, Old and New: Exploring African Cultures,” will sell t-shirts with this image for its Nov. 27 fundraiser.
Students from the Synergy Program class, “Images of a Continent, Old and New: Exploring African Cultures,” will host a fundraiser beginning at 8 a.m. today in the Wyoming Union.
The fundraiser is for a Kenyan non profit organization and will go until Nov. 29 at 5 p.m. in the breezeway of the Union. The organization, Harakati ya Kilimo-Uhifadhi, was founded by the course’s instructor Gatua wa Mbugwa, who was raised in Kenya.
“I founded the organization in 2004 because I found people were going off to school and not returning to the community that brought them up,” wa Mbugwa said. “I grew up in rural Kenya around farmers, and this organization is meant to help farmers and children in those areas.”
Harakati ya Kilimo-Uhifadhi has three core programs that it focuses on, including agriculture conservation, adult education, and after-school programs for elementary students. It also focuses on economic improvement for farmers, wa Mbugwa said.
At the fundraiser, World’s Finest Chocolate and bracelets that say “Helping Save Kenya” will be sold. T-shirts that were designed by the students in the Synergy Program also will be sold.
The mission of the organization “is to transform Kenya’s agriculture into feasible conservation agricultural systems and to transform Kenya into a fully food self-reliant country,” according to its website.
“I studied agriculture at the University of Wyoming and received my Ph.D. in agronomy so I help farmers with what I have learned,” wa Mbugwa said. “I also employ trainers to help with those farmers. I also do research and send what I have found to that trainer so she can apply it to those farmers. I consider us a cyber family because we do a lot of communication through email.”
In addition to the programs the organization offers, wa Mbugwa also produces the newsletter Murimi Mugi twice a year with a circulation of 500 each. The newsletter consists of pieces of poetry, songs, stories, and articles that have been submitted by Kenyan farmers and children. The newsletter is distributed in Gikuyu, which is a Kenyan language with about 10 million speakers.
“In Kenya, we have 42 nations, and 22 percent of those nations speak Gikuyu, which is why I chose that language to print it in,” wa Mbugwa said.
Wa Mbugwa also will teach a course in the summer titled “Beyond Images of a Continent, Old and New: Exploring African Cultures in Kenya,” in which those students will visit the organization in Kenya.
“There will be two phases during the visit. The first one we will visit with farmers and common people in Kenya and the students will get to really interact with them, which is what makes this course unique,” wa Mbugwa said. “During the second phase we will do the tourist thing and visit all the national parks and take in Kenya’s abundant wildlife.”
There is no prerequisite for this course and wa Mbugwa encourages early enrollment as space is limited to 15 students.
