A Grant Contract(G/C) Signing ceremony of a Grant Aid for Japanese NGO CORE’s Project ”Sustainable rural road maintenance using Do-nou technology by the community”
On September 7th, Ambassador Toshihisa Takata together with Mr. Kiyoshi Kita, the local representative of a Japanese NGO known as Community Road Empowerment(CORE) held a G/C signing ceremony of 2011’s Grant Aid for the project ”Sustainable rural road maintenance using Do-nou technology by the community”. With this Aid, CORE is going to transfer a rural road maintenance technology using Japanese traditional technique “Do-nou” to farmer groups in Uasin Gishu district which is a farming area in Kenya.
<Introduction of CORE’s activity and the detail of the project>
Many developing countries including Kenya are agricultural countries, but there are lots of people suffering from poverty owing to insufficient agricultural infrastructure like rural roads. Generally, during in rainy seasons, rural roads get muddy, blocking vehicles transporting farm product and preventing farmers from selling them in the market, a situation that leads to poverty. Moreover, it affects a lot of people in many ways, like commuting to schools, taking patients to hospitals, commuting to offices in town. A road that can be accessed through out the year is a necessity. However, due to lack of budget for road maintenance by the government, rural roads in farming villages remain in bad condition.
CORE developed a road maintenance method using “Do-nou(soil bag)” which can be done with locally available materials and basic technique. The NGO performs road maintenance in more than ten countries by introducing the Japanese traditional concept of “Michibushin”, which places importance on continuous road maintenance by the prime beneficiaries themselves.
In this project, CORE will provide road maintenance trainings with “Do-nou” to a farmer’s group of more than 500 people in Uasin Gishu district. Furthermore, a farmer’s group intending to do road maintenance continuously on their own has the option to be registered as a corporation with managing and technical skills by a local government. Once so registered, the group can apply for a contract by the local government to undertake road maintenance works. CORE provides support for skills build-up to that end.
Link: CORE Website (http://michibushinbito.ecnet.jp/eindex.html)
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Signing Ceremony together with Ambassador Toshihisa Takata and Mr. Kita, the local representative of CORE |
