THE TWO IMAGES OF MATANGWE - THROUGH THE EYES OF A VILLAGE BOY
By
Stephen Scott
Nov 24, 2003

I invite you to come with me to Africa and tour the village of Matangwe. Matangwe is located in western Kenya, near Lake Victoria and has a population of twenty five hundred people.

Here are the images of Matangwe through the eyes of a ten year old boy growing up here in the early nineteen sixties. The land is full of tall trees, wild fruits and animals. Rain comes twice a year and all the villagers are out ploughing, planting and harvesting their fields. This is the work people do to survive from day to day. There are no factories but I hear there are lots of them in the cities where educated people live and work. As children, we play around running from one compound to the next. Picking and eating wild fruits, fetching firewood from dead trees and brown water from the community pond shared by all the animals.

 

As I stand at the main path through the village, all around me are grass - thatched huts, piercing through the bushes. To the North is my school where other children and I learn sitting under a big shady tree. It is cool under the shade, yet scorching in the open sun. We don't seem to mind playing soccer in the open fields or just horsing around bare footed and covered in red dirt.
There is no road or a vehicle going through Matangwe. People walk for two to three hours to get to the market and main road where public transportation, for a day's wage, takes one to the city (Kisumu). There is no electricity, running water, sewer system and for sure never heard of a TV. If someone is sick, the village medicine man or the witch doctors are called. Some are lucky and live, but many die, just like my little brother who to this day no one can tell me what disease/illness he succumbed to.
Forty years later and living in Canada, Matangwe has undergone major transformations, mainly over the last eight years. This transformation is accredited to the support and partnerships with the Waterloo region people, businesses, schools and clubs such as the Rotary clubs, Kitchener - Conestoga, Grand River and Kitchener Rotary. This is what you would see in Matangwe today:
* A constructed school house (1996)
* A community health centre, (the hub of the village) providing comprehensive primary health   services
* Electricity at the hub powered by a generator and solar systems
* A main road runs through Matangwe linking with other communities
* A bus and many small vehicles pass through on a daily basis
* Clean well water
* Buying and selling of local goods at the clinic gates and vicinity
* Small businesses such as a mini flour mill (posho mill) springing in the vicinity
* People are becoming more aware of hygiene and sanitation, latrines are now found in many   compounds
* People are feeling good about progress

One of the most devastating things you'd witness today is the impact of HIV/AIDS. I have never seen so many people die daily in a village. People feel helpless as the core of the community is being decimated by HIV. Orphaned children, and widowed dying men and women can barely escape your eyes in the clinic line-up or just passing through the main road.

One thing I know for sure is that the involvement of the rotary clubs within the K - W areas have made a difference and continue to make a difference.

I therefore close this short tour by thanking you for your involvement and support of Care Partners International. As I look to the future of Matangwe, I see another image 10 years from now. A more self-reliant community, thriving micro enterprises, clean safe and drinkable low mineral water, low infant and maternal death rates, high literacy levels, expanded health services, latrines in every home, new HIV infections decimated and healthy young adults free of HIV/AIDS. This may be a dream, but it is dreams that make reality.

Let me encourage you to continue with your much-needed support to help Matangwe paint its future portrait, a self-sustaining and thriving community.

Respectfully submitted

Stephen Scott

Co-Founder & CPI chair.