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KAIPPG VOLUNTEERS:
WE HAVE AN ALL-VOLUNTEER FORCE WORKING IN
KENYA AND
THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, INCLUDING
THE DIRECTORS OF BOTH KAIPPG/KENYA AND
KAIPPG/INTERNATIONAL. WE HAVE VOLUNTEERS
FROM
ENGLAND, MALAYSIA, EGYPT, AUSTRALIA, JAPAN, CHINA, TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO, THE PHILIPPINES, CANADA, KENYA,
INDIA, THE UNITED
STATES, UGANDA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO, FINLAND, BULGARIA, SWITZERLAND, AND NIGERIA.
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JAMES ONYANGO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF KAIPPG: I was born
in 1969 in Western Kenya, and started my education in 1977, but was unable to continue due to lack of funds, so dropped out
in 1983 and went to work helping my parents farm. In 1986, relatives raised the money to allow me to continue my studies,
and I graduated in 1990, whereupon I was admitted to Kenyatta University in Nairobi for a BS in Chemistry and Mathematics.While at University, I became increasingly interested in helping the disadvantaged, and participated in
hundreds of charitable events, an experience which culminated in the founding of KAIPPG in 1995. In 1996, I graduated from the Univerity, and was posted to the Kenya Wildlife Service,
but decided to devote all of my energies to the development of KAIPPG instead, as the AIDS pandemic was beginning to hit Kenya
very hard. KAIPPG was at first formed by students as well as individuals and families affected by AIDS, and was a small lobbying
groups for their interests; by 1997, however,we had developed into a nonprofit, tax-exempt NGO with membership in local, regional,
and national AIDS counsils,and had broadened our interests to include a focus on poverty, malnutrition, education, environmental
concerns, the needs of women and children, and general health problems.
We now have memberships in international organizations,
have been awarded several foundation grants, are busy networking with other like-minded organizations in Africa and throughout
the world, and have a branch office located in the USA and 50 online volunteers helping us in all parts of the globe. I hope
someday to pursue a PhD in Public Health, and my personal interests in medicine, public health, community development, humanistic
psychology, and program management have been enhanced by various seminars and conferences--at which I have presented papers--and
by certificates in the Training of Trainers for Community-Based Healthcare and for Facilitators in the Behavioral-Change Process.
Like the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I believe in having a dream and pursuing it with all my heart and soul; my
ultimate goal is both the amelioration and eradication of AIDS in Africa and around the globe, but also the elimination of
poverty, hunger, and want of all kinds.
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JANET FELDMAN, Director KAIPPG International:
I was born in 1953, and educated in a Quaker-affiliated girls' school, which taught me the value of community service,
non-violence, and respecting other beliefs and cultures. In high school I was moved by civil-rights and anti-war struggles
and the then-new focus on the environment; in college
and graduate school, I was introduced to other issues and concerns--poverty, hunger, human rights, feminism, conflict resolution, global citizenship--which have augmented and deepened
my earlier commitments. I graduated from Hampshire College in 1980, and was the director of a public art space at UMASS/Amherst
for 3 years; I was also a co-founder of two community organizations
giving grants and loans to women for a variety of uses, from emergency needs to art projects and small-business ventures.
I attended the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, from 1985-1990, when I had to drop out due to severe
illness. Today I am still living with the effects
of CFIDS, but I have been able to establish (in the US) and direct this wonderful organization from my own home, with the power of communications technology and the help of my partners in Kenya and my online volunteers from
all over the world.
KAIPPG/International developed from a one-person (myself) operation during 1998-2000 into an international
nonprofit in partnership with NETAID, through which
I found the 50 volunteers who assist us today with the programs of our parent organization in Kenya. I met my partners in
Kenya, James and Philice Onyango, as the result
of a fluke mailing
which came my way in 1997, but from the beginning we felt united not only as friends with one another,
but in the service of a larger cause. This has helped me to do the healing necessary to pursue the work which KAIPPG and this
cause requires, and I feel blessed to be able to work closely with people of all races, creeds, and nationalities to ensure a better future not only for Kenyans and Africans
in general, but for the greater good of us all.
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