Rural Service Programme - Vihiga, Kenya

Rural Service Programme {RSP} can be traced back to the Lords Acre founded by Lord Morris in 1962. Lord Morris was a Quaker missionary who like it is in the traditional Quaker Church doctrine lived and practiced the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ of preaching, teaching, healing and empowering the flock.

The East African Yearly Meeting of Friends Church at Kaimosi pursued the Lords Acre dream even after the departure of Lord Morris. In 1962, the church at Kaimosi founded the Rural Service Program me [RSP] a resemblance of the Lords Acre. This was to be made a service department of the church. RSP aimed and still aims to support church members to put up church infrastructure called meeting Houses by the Quakers; through the Lords Acre. The Lords acre project covered  

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5,149.8sq.kilometres.

RSP is situated at Kaimosi mission station. All RSP activities are co-ordinated from here as the Head Offices.

The present RSP started as an agricultural programme pegged on the Lords Acre. From 1963, the government of Kenya through distribution of hybreed seed supported the programme and continues to support through CDF and Provincial Administration cooperation.

RSP is now an integrated project serving communities {households} of over 2m.kenyans in western Kenya primarily in Vihiga County, Kakamega county Kisii county Bungoma County and Trans Nzoia County.

The programme offers interventions in areas of poverty through agricultural support, appropriate technology, health care and social integration through counseling, training and accompanying.

In this endeavor RSP is supported by donors, partners, the Church and the communities.

RSP is managed by an elective Advisory Board for the EAYM {church}.

The main customers of RSP are the poor, the marginalized, the infected and the affected by HIV/AIDS, the widowed as a result of HIV/AIDS and the orphans.

To carryout these activities, RSP Advisory Board have enlisted the services of a management team headed by the programme co-coordinator as the chief executive officer assisted by others who Mann the entities of the programme.

We at RSP hope to realize our vision of impacting positively for the desired changes among the communities that we serve.



BACKGROUND OF THE CHURCH AND RSP

The Friends Church started in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in 1902 as the East Africa Yearly Meetings of Friends. In 1962, a missionary named Lord Maurice started a program under service commission called Rural Service Program (RSP). Rural Service Programme (RSP) - Kaimosi is the development arm of the East Africa Yearly Meeting of Friends Church. RSP was founded in 1962 by the East African Yearly Meeting of Friends (Quakers) as a service department of the church. As a service department, RSP aimed at supporting church members construct permanent church buildings through the Lord’s Acre Project. The Lord’s Acre Project assisted communities within 5,149.8 Square kilometers.

RSP is situated in Kaimosi mission station. The program was aimed at helping the churches to construct permanent buildings and maintain the schools. RSP started as an agricultural program to support the development of the church with the main project being the lord’s acre. The church members were encouraged to allocate a small piece of land within his/her farm for growing crops that would later be sold and taken to the church to support development activities. The government of Kenya later identified the RSP to distribute the hybrid maize seeds in 1963. After the independence the East African countries sought autonomy. The Kaimosi headquarters remained for the Yearly Meeting of Friends in Kenya. Currently there are 16 yearly meetings of Friends in Western Kenya served by RSP with additional two likely to be created.

The RSP has since transformed itself into an integrated project, serving a community of over 2 million people within Western Kenya primarily in the following districts: Vihiga, Kakamega, Mt Elgon, Gucha, Trans Mara, Lugari, Bungoma, Trans Nzoia, Kisii, Migori and Nandi districts. Most of the project activities are concentrated in Vihiga district, which has the highest population, coupled with high poverty and food insecurity. RSP is currently reviewing its legal registration to become a limited liability organization serving the church and community. The organizational growth of RSP will ensure that different communities are reached with the gospel and development using a holistic and integrated development approach. RSP uses community based approaches to reach out to people without any discrimination of region or religion. This will be done through sustainable agriculture, improving the school structures, health care and nutrition as well as the appropriate technology which will be revived and revamped to give an added grass root support for the program.

The programs area of coverage has an estimated population of 2.1 million people, comprising the Luhya, Kisii and Kalenjin tribes. Fifty nine percent ( 59% )of the total population are dependants, which is attributed to the high rate of unemployment among the youth, high population coupled with small fragmented pieces of land which is overused and in any case these are rendered uneconomical for the households; plus the HIV and AIDS, which has led to increasing number of orphans who are in need of care, shelter, food and clothing. The area covered by RSP is predominantly agricultural, characterized by relatively high rainfall in some areas and fertile soils. The staple crops in the area include maize, millet, sorghum, sweet potatoes and cassava. The main cash crops grown are sugarcane, tea, coffee and bananas. Marketing constraints have greatly hampered continued development of these crops and immensely affected the sustainability of agricultural programmes besides the limited land resources. Most of the house holds in the region keep livestock to provide food and to solve some of their socio-cultural issues at least for basic survival.

The area is characterized by poor infrastructure, particularly inadequate water and sanitation facilities, which have contributed to the prevalence of many diseases unique to inadequacies of this nature. The most common diseases are cholera, Tuberculosis, malaria, typhoid, diarrhea, measles and HIV and AIDS. These diseases have contributed to the declining human productivity leading to worsening levels of poverty. The on-going activities of RSP are being financed by Bread for the World- [Germany], Quakers, [Netherlands Yearly Meeting], American Friends, Kenya Horticultural Crop Development Authority project (K.H.D.P-USAID) and the 16 Yearly Meetings of Friends Churches spread across the region. RSP has received a joint funding from Bread for the World and Germany Friends for 30 years. The program has also received funds for special programs of the Netherlands Yearly Meeting, New England yearly Meeting (USA), Right Sharing of World Resources (USA) and Government Funded Programmes such as the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) – Gucha district, poverty reduction fund – Lugari district and the National Aids Control Council (NACC), besides the mandatory government services.



RSP's Vision

RSP vision is a sustainable organization with an empowered society.



RSP's Mission

RSP mission is to empower the poor and the marginalized people guided by biblical principles through sustainable agricultural extension services community health, appropriate technology, water and sanitation trusting upon God.



Core Value Statement

At RSP we endeavor to function within a set of core values and we do anchor our operations on ethos and tenets that befit our calling as a service organization for the poor and the marginalized.

The core values include but not limited to:-

We shall forever pursue the practices of the Lord Jesus Christ and his teachings of putting God before all else in all our undertakings as we serve humanity.
Integrity; we shall follow and practice what we say and all the time mind the trust put in us by our customers.
Accountability; we shall be accountable for all resources put at our disposal by the present opportunity.
Fairness; no matter the adverse differences we may have with a section of the communities we serve, we shall endeavor to provide the required services with full fairness and transparently.
Teamwork; we strive to work together as a team at RSP despite our professional, age, origin and race differences. We all serve at RSP for commonality of mission and purpose.
Commitment; we are committed to provide high quality services to our customers with full equity and justice.
Professionalism; we shall endeavor to use all our available professional skills knowledge to empower our customers and the communities we serve.



As we do all these may Gods guidance be our shield and defender.