ACORN Kenya Trust has had success organizing members in the Korogocho settlement of Nairobi, Kenya over the past year. Their membership has grown to over 400 people who participate in monthly meetings and issue-based campaigns. They have focused their first campaign on increasing education funding for school bursaries. Members are in the process of electing leaders and further developing the organization through capacity building trainings. ACORN Kenya Trust has also started an HIV/AIDS support group and is looking to do more organizing work around health issues in the future.

1. ACORN KENYA REPORT FOR THE <br />PERIOD OF NOVEMBER TO MARCH 2011<br />Introduction.<br />Acorn Kenya Trust was introduced in Kenya in the year 2009 by the Chief Organizer Mr Wade Rathke and in the same year two Community organizers were recruited to start the training. Korogocho was selected as the pilot area for the training and after a period of six months the organization had strong bases with more than 400 members registered and participating in the activities. The Organization was launched on May 2010 and since then the membership has been growing as they embark on their first issue based campaign on Education bursary funding.<br />Organizing<br />The organizing work in Korogocho has been going on very well with majority of the residence supporting this new model of organizing. This is well demonstrated through the attendance of the monthly meetings that we hold in the two specific areas of Highridge and Kisumu Dogo/ Nyayo.<br />Participation during these meetings has always been very good with fairly representation of youths, gender, tribe and even people with disabilities. We made it clear to all members of the Association that it is in their interest to change the situation they are in currently by coming together to find solutions to the most of the problems they currently face. With this position clear in their mind all members voluntarily participate in all the activities planned (i.e. meetings and campaigns).<br />Leadership Development<br />Members have been able to know and understand each other well through their regular interactions during the monthly meetings and planning sessions of issue based campaigns. It’s now the high time that the groups have their legally, elected leaders. This process has already started where currently members in both areas are engaging in the process of group constitution making that will act as the guide to hold general elections in both areas within the next two months. Few Capacity building trainings have been conducted in both areas but more are still required though we are incapacitated by the requirements to facilitate such activities in our groups. We are soliciting support from different sources to enable us carry out more trainings since they are paramount to the growth and sustainability of these groups.<br /> ACORN Kenya Trust structure<br /> ACORN INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITIESWe have come up with a tentative structure which will be modified with time.<br />ACORN KENYA TRUST<br />BOARD OF TRUSTEES -8 members<br />MANAGEMENTFour members<br />ACORN-Kisumu D ndndoACORN HighridgeACORNKAACORN KAACORNGrogon AACORNGitathuruACORNNgomongoooo<br />Notes on the organizational chart<br />ACORN Kenya Trust is under ACORN International/communities. It comprises of 8 members, 2 being the community organizers, 2 members of ACORN from the local community and 4 incorporated members from different professions. The main responsibility of the board of trustee will be to strategize on how to fund rise locally and internationally in order to supplement collected membership dues for the organization issue based campaigns and management and general sustainability of the Organization here in Kenya.<br />The management team consist of the 2 community organizers and two members from the community who will be overseeing day to day running of the organization.<br />Membership of ACORN Kenya Trust will consist of registered constituencies/neighbourhoods and shall coalesce under ACORN Kenya Trust. The Trust will be coordinating activities of these small communities based on the issues emerging from the areas represented. <br />Membership recruitment and consolidation<br />Recruitment of members for ACORN Kenya Trust has been going on. A part from the two villages of Highrigde and Kisumu Ndogo where membership is high, the education campaign resulted to the recruitment of 100 members from the other villages. In fact there is a feeling that we form groups from these villages for meetings to be held in their own villages. However the task load will be heavy for the two of us only and we hope that through the collaboration with Acorn International office we will acquire required resources to train a group of Local community Organizers as a support group to opur organizing work in Korogocho.<br />Formation of other groups<br />HIV/AIDS support groups<br />Prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS is high in the all of korogocho settlement. This can not be ignored by ACORN Kenya Trust as a membership organization. From the greater concern of our members most of who are victims to this fate, we have facilitated the formation of HIV/AIDS support group of more than 60 members. This will provide a firm foundation when we embark on the health issue campaigns.<br />There is a lot of fund from the government and other agencies for HIV/AIDS program but does not reach to the people who are either affected or infected and we plan to venture into this campaign in the near future. However for the time being we have linked the support group with Mr.Tom who has initiated a program on income generating activities for the group.<br /> NB. This is not an area of our focus for now, untill we win in education and remittance campaigns is when we will go full blast in the health issue campaigns.<br />Dues Collection. <br />This is well understood from the context of Acorn organizing model and majority of the community members support the process. However majority of our members have not been able to keep the exercise consistence where every member is supposed to pay Kshs. 20.00 every month. <br />This is how the contribution has been for the last few months:-<br /> MONTHLY PAYMENTSAREASNOVDECJANFEBTOTALSHIGHRIDGE120096080016004560KISUMU DOGO96080078010203560GRAND TOTALS21601760158026208120<br />Issue based campaigns<br />The education campaign has been one of the most issue based campaigns that members have been engaging on for the last few months. The issue has been a bit complex with a lot of challenges both at the local level and government level. It has been very difficult to secure appointments with leaders who have been in most of these offices for negotiation and clarifications on the whole process. However out of our efforts and steps we underwent in the first level of our campaign a tremendous change has been experienced in the settlement area, in terms of change of approach to advertise bursary funding, distribution of forms and selection of the persons worth to receive the fund. Although the approval has not been done we strongly hope that a considerable number of students will get the funding.<br />We were also able to link up with one of the Secondary school where we have been able to recommend over 25 students who had dropped from school and are now continuing with their learning at a reduced cost awaiting any opportunity for sponsorship. Ghetto Urban Rehabilitation Movement (GUREM )which runs the school was at one time our partners in education campaigns) <br />Account opening.<br />After the successful registration of the association as trust we have been able now to open the account of the organization with the Kenya Commercial Bank that will be operated by four people, the two of us as the lead Cos and two members of the community as part of the members trustees.<br />Our account is ‘Acorn Kenya Trust Acc. No. 1124921095.<br />Field office.<br />We were able to open a small field office for the Organization and we strongly thank Mr. Rick of the International labour movement who has agreed to facilitate the rent payment for a whole year. The office is situated in the outskirt of Korogocho in an area known as Kariobangi in a building called Sanoda House.<br />Address <br />For the purpose of institutional credibility and engagement with other organizations we have opened an official yahoo address for the organization; acornkenyatrust@yahoo.com.<br />Remittances Campaign.<br />The organization released a press statement, remittance survey report and our demands to the following banking institution and print media.<br />Commercial bank of Kenya<br />Standard chartered<br />Equity bank<br />Media houses<br />1. Standard paper<br /> 2. Nation paper<br /> 3. The people<br />We are still a waiting for their responds. The modified campaign materials are attached on this report.<br />Linkages <br />ACORN Kenya Trust has created a number of linkages in pursuit for the education campaigns. It has worked closely with; local administration, City Council of Nairobi, St.John Parish Korogocho, Kutoka Net work, Alternative to Violence Program, Concern/Redeemed Church, Poverty Eradication Network(PEN) ,Korogocho A community Development Reform Project, Education for life, Ghetto in urban with education Committee (Gurem)Zion international education centre, and the University of Nairobi Department of education emergencies, Raising Voice Uganda(is National organization from Uganda which carries out education campaigns)<br />We have also closely worked with Rick of International Solidarity labour movement. The organization is currently paying ACORN Kenya Trust’s office. Rick has also given us a lot of skills on strategizing on how to carry out the campaigns. <br />Base line survey<br />Another base line survey was conducted towards the end of February and the first week of March 2011.The purpose of this survey was to establish the number of pupils who did the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education but could not continue with the secondary education and also to establish any drop outs due to lack of school fees.<br />This vital data was missing in the first survey that was conducted in July 2010 and it was pointed out in the forum in which findings were disseminated.<br />The report is also attached <br />Challenges <br />We have been meeting quite a number of challenges during the organizational process as under mentioned<br />Lack of capacity-Being only two organizers it is quite difficult and strenuous to organize the whole of Korogocho especially when it comes to the issues like education and remittances which are cutting across<br />Deep culture of silence-Kenya is a society which is highly polarized. Different classes have been created by the elit.The class of rulers and the ruled, rich and poor, privileged and less privileged. This has resulted to the creation of a culture of silence that is characterized by extreme poverty, suspision, apathy and resistance to change. A groom situation that is facing Korogocho and other middle and lower income earning settlements.<br />Lack of campaign materials<br />Culture of handouts instilled by the NGOs<br />Lack of cooperation from other organizations due to fear of competition from ACORN Kenya Trust. <br />