With the earnings, the group buys maize flour to make ugali, a dough-like staple food, and beans, which supplement produce from their farm in weekly lunches for children.Vision Bearerz also runs outreach programmes to warn against drug use and crime, and has sessions where women teach girls about feminine health.The life I was living was a lie. It didn’t add up to anything. We just lost people. Now, we are winning people in the community, Njoki said.Davis Gichere, 28, another founding member, called the work therapeutic.Challenges remain. Joining Vision Bearerz requires a pledge to leave crime behind, and there have been instances of recidivism, with at least one member arrested. Lingering criminal reputations have led to police harassment in the past, and finding money to buy food for Saturday feedings is a weekly struggle.Funding cuts across the development space, including the dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development, make the prospect of new financing dim.At least one other group in Nairobi’s Kibera slum, Human Needs Project, does similar work of urging youth away from crime and addressing food insecurity through urban farming.It’s a model that can be scaled up or copied elsewhere, said Okoro of CFK Africa.The future of development is locally led organisations,” he said, noting they are best suited to understanding the needs of their communities.Kariaga still feels the pain of his brother’s death, but is proud of his new job.Farming can change the world, he said, a silver-capped tooth glinting in the sun.
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