2016

WOMEN UNITED AGAINST POVERTY IN KENYA (WAUPIK)

 Our Vision: A life above the poverty line
Our Mission: WAUPIK exists to empower
women as lead stakeholders in building a
just and cohesive society that enjoys
equitable social development that lives
wholesomely

Our Core Values are:

Collective Wisdom for members
Spirit of Altruism for the common good
Uniting energies for greater impact
Acting in Partnership with others to further the cause
Standing up for Integrity in adherence to moral and
ethical principles
Building Knowledge to be relevant today and to be
ready for tomorrow

Cover: Single mothers in Kapuonja- Kisumu County in

Kenya

Fact Finding Mission:

The year 2016 was projected as one opportunity to learn and grow as an organization.
Building partnerships, in working with various actors including the community to come up
with innovative and effective programmes to address the challenge posed by poverty. The
organization in its aim to serve women, youth and children made vulnerable by poverty;
established its structures from national, county, ward to sub- location levels in Nairobi,
Kajiado, Kisumu, Busia and Migori Counties. WAUPIK currently has a Board of 7 members
each of whom is assigned an organization development area for well-coordinated WAUPIK
take off. That is: networking and linkages, administration, gender and youth, institutional
strengthening, communication and resource mobilization. Since inception just other new
organizations we have overcome teething challenges and learnt to fall forward'
 Single Mothers Financial and Psychological Needs
Forums organized in Nairobi, Kajiado, Kisumu, Busia and Migori Counties of Kenya dubbed
fact finding mission. Through our network of volunteers we established groups of single
mothers, most of whom were either not formalized or came together at a time of crisis. A fact
finding manual was developed to guide the process. WAUPIK acknowledged the demographic
transition youths underwent therefore sampled two higher learning institutions (1 public and
1 private university respectively). A questionnaire was prepared for the fact finding purpose
among teenage parents in the universities.

withdrawn and hardly have a social life

with peers.
16 forums were held, 10 for single mums,
2 for children of single mums and 4 for
teen parents. WAUPIKs emphasis on need
for the groups to be actors in getting out of
the poverty trap resulted into formal
registration of 3 groups: Kawino Women,
Amber Women and New Life Women
group. The rest of the women group
continue meeting and were taken through
the basics of table banking. The teenagers
however preferred to be networked. We
A Life Not worth Finding Oneself have a social group for waupik teen-
This an attempted translation of a parents.
participants view of single motherhood. It
was established that both the mums and
their children suffered mental health issues
that affected their socio- economic
activities. Participants felt that having a
support group reduced the burden a whole
lot. Others challenged us to sort a lasting
solution to the startup they often receive
from other projects. It was felt to be
meagre and mostly temporary to grow into
a big entity.
Teen parents have relatively dynamic
psychological needs, they are in need of re-
establishing their identity. They are
worried about their societal outlook and
future. Those who were stigmatized by
partners after conception are more
 the cow even when the milk run dry".
" At WAUPIK we have learnt that failure is
a reason to jump up higher towards
Operation WATSAN
attaining our goals ..."
WAUPIK team woke up to the reality
Design thinking the way to go
that we had to achieve safe environment
to the Ramba Boys' school stakeholders.
Without much expectation, we attended a
form ones parents' day at the school and
requested only three minutes of the
meeting's time. "Poverty issues are rather
difficult to attend to. Health is one of
those issues. The water our children take
determines the extent to which they stay
healthy to acquire the good grades we so
demand from them. What is our role as
parents in this room? As President Obama
so said -Hard things are indeed Hard to
get-," said Salma Lina ( WAUPIK Treasurer).
We are amazed that a seemingly huge
problem can be simplified when resources
are unified and when communication is
open and effective. We thank the school
Parents Association for taking up the The team voted design thinking as the
project to improve water and sanitation in best tool of the year for project planning.
Ramba School. We believe the sky is the This guided development of a strategy map
limit for the boys at Ramba. that would see us through planning for the
year 2017.
Capacity developed
Our implementation structure is through
The team sort to enhance programmatic a network of community volunteers. The
knowledge through a range of free webinar national team currently comprising the
resources. Focus was mainly on: social Board and founder members- work with
media and digital fundraising, donor County coordinators who supervise the
relations, networking and linkage creation, ward representatives each working with
reporting success stories, crowd funding sub- location representatives. Similarly,
and how to develop partners database. each sub-location representative is charged
First crowd funding attempt saw us fall with a direct responsibility for the
twice then stood up third: a great step to individual community members (target
building a dream. The first project entry beneficiaries).
team think that at best we did not rank the WAUPIK team purpose to optimize
least. A second attempt which saw us available resources as a strategy to achieve
integrate most of the learning materials the organizations strategic purpose.
and opportunities to network opened our
minds. As one of our members reckoned,
" we keep milking the cow even when the
milk does not drip at all. We keep feeding
 THANK YOU FOR INSPIRING AND ENABLING A LIFE ABOVE THE POVERTY LINE

Partners: Government:
The Pollination Project NGOs Coordination Board
Augustinian Community Foundation Nairobi County
Vijana Amani Pamoja Kajiado County
Horn Aid Response Initiative Kisumu County
Global Giving Busia County
M- Changa Migori County
Kenya School for the Deaf

Individuals: Daniel Aginah, Monica Nunez Gonzalez, Enouce Ndeche, Simon Otieno, Charles
Okello, Abdirashid Yusuf, Tamisha Amondi, Peter Wanjohi, Robert Momanyi
Board Members: Florence Githuthu, Grace Asimba, Noel Mack-donald, Salma Lina- Molly,
Winnie Jackline, Arinolah Elizabeth- Nite, Vincent Orioki
Implementation Team: County and Community Volunteers, Founder Members
PAMOJA DHIDI YA UMASKINI

www.waupik.org / info@waupik.org/
exec@waupik.org