When you visit the homestead of Mr and Mrs Stephen Simpai in Narosura area, Narok South Sub County, you can hardly guess the horrible life they lived two years ago.
The wife Linda Simpai welcomed us with a warm smile and one could easily read an example of a happy couple.
After engaging the couple, we realised how dark life was before World Vision introduced a programme aimed at boosting the livelihoods of the locals in Narosura and Loita wards of Narok County two years ago.
Mr Simpai, was a daily drunkard, who used every shilling he earned on consuming cheap illicit alcohol. The alcohol did not only compromise on his health and productivity but was also a threat to his family as he kept fighting his wife in front of his young children.
“I was a very violent person. Often, I would come home drunk and start fighting my wife and children over nothing. There are days my wife would be called to pick me on the road side. I had lost hope in life,” he recalled.
His wife reiterated how dark life was because she was the sole bread-winner of her young family. She would struggle doing casual work to afford food for her husband and two children.
“I would be called by my neighbours to pick up my drunk husband beside the road. I endured this kind of a life for five years,” Linda remembered.
However, things changed after the husband was invited to attend an Empowered World View (EWV) training organized by the World Vision organisation. He had been chosen as one of the champions in his home area.
He confessed that the programme helped in transforming his mind, and slowly, he stopped drinking alcohol and concentrated in building his family.
He was able to appreciate his wife and together they sat down and put up an economic plan where they prioritized poultry farming, maize farming and cattle keeping.
Some of the key aspects he learnt in EWV is that he had so much unutilised resources that if exploited could earn him a decent living. I realized I had enough land and water that if well utilized could give me an income.
“My wife and I planted maize in our one-acre piece of land which produced four bags. Through the income we started poultry farming in collaboration with my wife. I am very grateful to World Vision for bringing the EWV project to us.”
Currently, the couple has 23 chicken and one cow that they have bought from the returns from their maize farming business.
The couple has been able to build a permanent house after years of living in a grass-thatched mud house.
Unlike before when his children feared relating to him, Mr Simpai said his wife and children are his best friends as they share a lot of fun together.
“EWV has taught me to appreciate my family. I take my family for outings where we go to play and relax as a family. This has revived my spirit and am completely a changed person,” Mr Simpai added.
His diet and health have also improved as the family can afford a well-balanced diet every day.
Those who knew Mr Simpai before he was transformed also testified that the family had gone through a complete transformation after the bread-winner embraced his family responsibilities.
One of his neighbours Daniel Ole Kileteny lauded the EWV programme that had empowered Mr. Simpai to be a productive man in the society as he was a daily drunkard who seemed to have lost hope in life.
“It was not abnormal to find him lying beside the road and in ditches, having been unable to walk home. His wife would struggle to raise their two children and sometimes you could hear her screaming for help when assaulted by the husband,” he recalled.
Ole Kileteny lauded the EWV program and called on World Vision to extend the program to many homes to empower families that have lost hope in life.
The world vision project aims at transforming household resilience in vulnerable environments.
By Ann Salaton
