Executive Summary

Founded in April, 2010, The Women’s Initiative in Education (NEWI) is an independent, non-partisan and non-profit National Non-Governmental Organization operating in Kenya with its head office in Nairobi. NEWI partners with different emergency, recovery and developmental actors, donors and Government Ministries to implement integrated community based interventions in quest to alleviate poverty and improve the quality of life among the most vulnerable and underserved communities including victims of natural disasters and extreme exclusion from basic services, victims of gender-based violence, underserved victims of HIV/AIDS and those with special protection needs including women, children and the elderly. Core among NEWI’s competencies is conducting evidence-based research and advocacy in order to influence government and other humanitarian policies. NEWI’s core areas of intervention include enterprise promotion, food security, livelihoods, nutrition, health, WASH, education, child protection, and prevention of gender based violence, peace building, economic empowerment, environmental conservation and advocacy.

For over 10 years, NEWI’s dedicated humanitarian workers have been helping vulnerable and underserved communities in Kenya affected by humanitarian crises by ensuring they access quality primary health care services, quality education, safe and sufficient water, they live in a safe environment, are able to meet their basic needs through sustainable and culturally acceptable economic activities, their households are food secure and the special needs of children and women are adequately met through well-tailored interventions.

To empower some of the most vulnerable communities economically, NEWI has invested in Orange Fleshed Sweet Potatoes (OFSP) growing, Tissue Culture Banana (TCB) growing, establishment of kitchen gardens  and livestock rearing including poultry keeping, all aimed at increasing food availability as well as income levels of the targeted households. This is best explained through the household economic strengthening interventions that are already in place. Income is raised through provision of grants for small and medium enterprises, and by enrolling the caregivers of the target population into a saving platform known as SILC (Savings and Internal Lending Communities). NEWI addresses food insecurity though helping the households to diversify their agricultural practices including growing crops that are highly nutritious, have faster growth and maturity rates and are drought and pest resistant alongside their staple crops. Dissemination of such knowledge has best been achieved by NEWI through establishment of model farms from where the individual farmers get the much needed knowledge to replicate at household levels.

Currently, NEWI is also addressing critical humanitarian needs of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in the hard – to – reach rural villages, slums and schools with interventions that are geared towards ensuring that they attend school, maintain healthy life styles, are safe, and secure from risky behaviors that may expose them to HIV infection.

NEWI’s conviction is anchored on the belief that everyone’s social, economic, and civil rights occupy a central place in making the world a better place, and thus to effectively contribute to this, it seeks to work at the grass roots with people at the local level, while at national and global levels it seeks to contribute and influence policy through advocacy and sharing of best practices.

To realize this aim and purpose NEWI;

• Fundraises and mobilizes resources to support interventions in enterprise promotion, food security, livelihoods, nutrition, health, WASH, education, child protection, and prevention of gender based violence, peace building, economic empowerment, environmental conservation and advocacy.

• Provides a platform for individuals, community groups, local civil society organizations and government departments to use and exploit their existing potential and opportunities to realize better life outcomes.

• Builds and strengthens partnerships, takes advantage of technology, uses best practices, tools, and knowledge that lead to better lives of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups.

NEWI pursues a Participatory Integrated Community Development (PICD) approach   and a Community Development (CD) model that entails promotion of dialogue, building partnerships, having a shared and common understanding of problematic issues and designs interventions / solutions that address the identified needs through a broad based consultative process led by the beneficiary groups. To empower communities, NEWI depends on existing local capacities to support local organizations to implement projects or advocacy for policy change.