Shofco, Vihiga County sign MoU on development projects

Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO) and the Vihiga County Government have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that allows the two entities to work together on various community empowerment initiatives and projects.

Under the MoU signed at Governor Wilber Ottichilo’s office in Mbale on Tuesday, Shofco and the county agreed to work together in areas of agriculture, water, environment, gender, health, education and youth and women empowerment programmes.

“This MoU is amazing and special. We have never signed an MoU like this as a county. It is an encompassing MoU that covers all the sectors," Governor Ottichilo said.

“Our policy in this county is partnership. We must work with partners like Shofco because we are all working for humanity and one person or entity cannot work for humanity alone."

The governor further lauded the MoU as broad saying it opens doors to various opportunities that will benefit citizens.

“This MoU is a milestone and unique because it gives us a lot of opportunities. Shofco has been doing great things in this county without even me knowing about them," he said.

“You have done an excellent job by training 250 students and you have done this without making noise about it. Thank you for coming through for our youth.” 

He added:

“Shofco has come to us at the right time because we have a lot of focus on the youth in this county. 60 per cent of our population is youth and we are the only county with a Youth Act. Our focus is to bring the youth on board to be part of the government system.”

On his part, Shofco CEO and Founder Dr Kennedy Odede said his organisation has done a lot in Vihiga County and will scale up its work following the signing of the MoU.

“Last year, we distributed maize seeds to over 10,000 farmers in this county and we have now rolled out youth and women projects. We are going to scale up our programmes now that we have a formal engagement with the county government,” Dr. Odede said.

Odede challenged the county government to support the youth being sponsored by Shofco in TVET institutions by buying them equipment, job placement and internships.

“We don’t want to train youth who will graduate and go back to being idle. We are currently sponsoring 250 youth in Vihiga and if the county can support them after graduation, then we will double that number in this year,” he stated.

As a believer in partnerships, Dr. Odede said he is ready to work with county governments to equip existing hospitals and education facilities.

“Why do we have to build new hospitals when we can support existing ones to ensure that they have medicine and are well-equipped? Why build a new school when you can better an existing one? That’s what partnership is meant to do and that’s the direction we are taking as SHOFCO,” he stated.

SHOFCO currently has 45,000 members in Vihiga County under its Shofco Urban Network (SUN) programme.

SUN seeks to build a strong urban and semi-rural network with the vision of giving the urban poor a voice.

It is currently the largest grassroots movement in Kenya with over three million members in 35 counties.