A 21-year-old student from Cork city who had never been on a farm in this country but who took to rural life with enthusiasm while on a stint in Kenya with Brighter Communities Worldwide, is appealing for support for a fundraiser to help farm families and rural dwellers there.
“The only way the majority of communities that Brighter Communities Worldwide work with can get water for drinking, cooking and cleaning is to collect it from ponds, streams and rivers,” said Denise Kelleher.
“This water is contaminated and leads to the transmission of diseases such as cholera, typhoid and dysentery. Brighter Communities Worldwide is working to change that.”
Denise, a student of International Development in University College Cork, secured a placement with Brighter Communities Worldwide, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that works in partnership with local communities and which is celebrating 20 years working across health, sanitary and economic empowerment programmes.
Staying in Kericho County, Kenya, where the charity is based was quite a change for Denise who is a self-confessed city girl.
“Seeing the rural way of life was a big culture shock. I had never been on a farm in Ireland, never mind Kenya,” she said.
“There was maize taller than myself growing all around the centre I was staying at and every time we would leave, I would see all the people in the fields with big shovels from the minute the sun hit the sky.”
Time in Kenya
“We started in Nairobi and then drove up the rift valley to Kericho County. On the way we dropped into a man called Rob who is a friend of the people from Brighter Communities Worldwide,” Denise explained.
“He had a big farm with a lot of different fruit and vegetables growing and I noticed that they weren’t separated into rows of one crop as how I imagined before.
“There was cabbage, lettuce, avocados, bananas; everything you can think of. I never saw any crops up close before. It was quite fascinating.
“Rob also has an ant hill and told us that if we ever got cut out in the bush, we should use the ants in the ant hill to catch onto the cut and help stitch it up.
“I decided to be brave and let an ant grasp onto my finger, and when it did, I started screaming and shaking my hand to get the ant off. It was definitely an experience I won’t forget.”
Denise’s month in Kenya was filled with memorable experiences from getting out onto programmes, meeting the communities, learning more about development work and adjusting to the agricultural way of life.
“Across the street from where I stayed was Baraka Agricultural College which was founded by the Franciscan brothers. I also got to meet three of those brothers, who were amazing and hospitable people,” she said.
“I felt like I was at home in Ireland, even though I was thousands of miles away.
“Another day, we received a tour of the campus, and I saw the biggest pig I’d ever seen. It was like staring at a human.
“Baraka produces a lot of honey, so they maintain beehives. When we got close to the building where they were, I could hear the buzzing a little too loud, and it wouldn’t go away,” she said.
“This particular bee wouldn’t leave me alone, and I remembered from being at Rob’s farm a few days earlier that when one bee stings, they release an odour to make the other bees in the hive think they are under attack, meaning they would come to attack me so when I kept hearing that buzzing sound I screamed and fell to my knees.
“People probably thought I was a mad woman but I didn’t care. I was definitely out of my comfort zone but it was exhilarating,” Denise said.
Kenyan potato farm
“Another time, John and Salim, two Kenyan staff members of Brighter Communities Worldwide and I were returning from a programme where we had planted trees around a water spring in honour of World Environment Day.
“We were talking about staple foods at the time, and I mentioned how important potatoes are to Ireland even though I had never seen them harvested. John and Salim couldn’t believe this, so they insisted I visit John’s potato farm.
“The fact that John’s wife, daughters, and granddaughters were all in the field harvesting potatoes with this big shovel thing was amazing,” she said.
“They persuaded me to try harvesting some myself, and my God, was it challenging. People in the field probably thought it was funny to see this woman struggling to harvest potatoes.
“However, afterwards I was quite pleased with myself and felt like a proper farmer. John even tried to offer the potatoes I had harvested, but we were leaving for home so soon that we would never be able to finish them.
“By the end of the second week, I felt like I knew a lot more about agriculture and the commitment it needs but there is always more to learn. Every day I was seeing something new grow.
“One day we were out, and I had been shouting to everyone that ‘the cow with the horns’ was going to charge at me when what I actually saw was a bull, not a cow,” Denise laughed.
“I’m grateful for everything I learnt in Kenya, especially about agriculture because it’s a hard work and people’s livelihoods depend on factors like the weather that are out of their control.
“I have the utmost regard for farmers everywhere, and now that I’m back home, I can’t wait to learn more about Irish farms. I’m a convert,” she said.
Fundraiser
Having seen at firsthand the conditions which people have to work with, Denise is helping Brighter Communities Worldwide to highlight ‘The BIG Walk’ inaugural Cork to Kenya fundraiser to gather much needed resources. The 10,000km challenge will take place between now and the end of October.
“My trip to Kenya brought home to me the incredible work that Brighter Communities Worldwide does and has been doing for the past 20 years,” said Denise.
“They really make the money work for the people they work with. Nothing is wasted and this new fundraising initiative is one that all people in Ireland can get behind.
“We love walking and we’re lucky that in the main, we choose to walk for fitness, for health and for fun,” Denise said.
“However, it is a different story in Kenya where walking is the main mode of travel for so many people who have to travel vast distances to access clean water.
“I am hoping that this will resonate with people in Ireland to get behind our challenge. Participants will choose where they want to walk, run, cycle or swim and count the kilometres they cover and hopefully together they will reach 10,000km, the distance from Cork to Kenya.
“It’s a novel challenge and one that people of all ages and all fitness levels can get behind. People love to walk, and it can be a challenge that one can do alone or even better with friends, work colleagues, running groups, walking groups”.
The registration fee is €20 for individuals and €50 for schools. This fee will go towards supporting the vital work of Brighter Communities Worldwide.