Mombuni Village will be better!

It is now an open secret that the problems facing Mombuni village are real, many, and hurting the community. For a long time, nothing has been done. No one, neither the young nor the old stood up and declared war against poverty, disease, youth unemployment, illiteracy, and environmental destruction. Not even one man or woman stood up and rallied the people towards improving their very own lives.

Now, Mombuni Youth for Change has said it is enough of those years of hopelessness, poverty, hunger, and idle youth. We have refused the tendencies to be disappointed by the emptiness and dryness of our village. We refuse to listen and to believe the voices that tell us the situation is out of hand. We believe we can do something to alleviate hunger and environmental degradation. This is our moment.

For a long time, we have looked at the glass as half-empty. Now is the time to look at it as half-full. We cannot accept defeat even when all odds seem to be against us. We cannot lose hope even after going through 3 years of drought and famine. Somehow, we can sense a better tomorrow because we have made the most powerful step....getting started.

The youth have recognized the future of the people of Mombuni. They have started the search for that future and in the coming 3, 4, 5 years, we will secure and deliver the future to our people. We will plant a minimum of 100,000 trees annually. With our own hands, we will dig and maintain our earth roads. We will utilize our fertile but dry soils for serious agriculture because we can see the sinking of a borehole from a distance. We can feel it...somebody somewhere is listening to our cry and will soon respond. This is the length, width and depth of our faith.

With this faith, we have started digging terraces and contours in to harvest water to our farms come the short rains in October 2009. We are aggressively seeking for financial support to construct dykes and gabions in our already dry streams, because we expect to control soil erosion and conserve water come October. With this faith, we have began the process of educating our mothers and fathers, on the little and big things we need to do in order to get food on the table, achieve adequate nutritional status, increase income levels in each of the 200 families, and combat HIV/AIDS.

The era of indecision and inaction is over. We refuse to watch things happen in other countries. We refuse to wonder as ordinary people make their lives better, not bitter, through simple but extraordinary ways. We will make change happen in the village. The urgency of the moment inspires us to change the way things have been done in the village over the years.

The situation may be gloom but we promise you one thing: Freedom from hunger, disease, illiteracy, and poverty is coming tomorrow. We are determined to make a difference-a real difference.

Thank you all.

From the Chairperson's desk,

Christopher Mutisya.
Mombuni Youth for Change.