Capacity-building efforts bring many successes to the community

The desire to develop her community and country saw Salome Nyanga applying her newly developed skills on community development in Kenya after her studies on an Australian Government Scholarship.

She completed a Masters in Community Planning and Development at La Trobe University in Melbourne  in 2010.

“Studying Community Planning and Development, interacting with the international community and living in a developed country for two years made me realise that we too could build a better Kenya if each one of us strives towards development.

“Being in Australia was an eye-opener,” says Salome. As a Principal Livestock Development Officer at the Ministry of Livestock Development, she organised and trained various community groups on strategic planning.

She helps the groups articulate common goals and shares the means to achieve these goals. In doing so, Salome has not only helped these community groups to find meaning and direction, but, more importantly, to agree on ways to channel their newfound direction into actionable plans for results.

Salome’s commitment to her community is almost unparalleled. Upon completion of her postgraduate studies, she chose to return to her native Chuka, a small town 172 km north-west of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. “I chose to remain at my former station and contribute towards the development of my community,” she says.

Salome has successfully supported a district agriculture forum, the production and marketing of dairy goats and their milk, and a milk marketing group. She has also helped several individual farmers set up successful livestock enterprises by helping them plan strategically and linking them to suppliers and markets.

Salome supported the Meru Goat Breeders Association farmers to mobilise them for collective milk marketing. The group is currently selling over 300 litres of goat milk per week in the Meru South District.

She is also involved with a milk value addition and marketing project, which is supported by the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI).