HISTORY AND ORIGIN

Rural Outreach Programme is a Kenyan based Non-Governmental Organisation registered in 1992 to undertake development activities aimed at improving the livelihoods of the rural poor in Kenya. It was started in Kenya by Prof. Ruth K. Oniang’o in 1992, The organization was preceded by a successful action research project, the Mumias Project, which was undertaken by Executive Director Prof. Ruth K. Oniang’o, then also a Professor of Food Science and Nutrition at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Nairobi, Kenya.

Experience from the action research energized ROP activities. One such experience was the realization of the immense human resource that exists in poor rural communities, which ROP has decided to utilize fully in its activities.

The first Rural Outreach Programme was undertaken in a sugarcane growing, food deficit area which has registered increasing levels of child malnutrition since 1974 when the Mumias Sugarcane Company started operations in the area.

 

STRUCTURE


Rural Outreach Programme has its national Head Office in Kenya with over 12 staff, as well as more than 50 employees in Field stations. ROP has a strong Board that comprises eight personalities from various backgrounds. Board members are encouraged to participate in ROP activities, thus enriching the knowledge base of ROP. Board members of Rural Outreach Programme, appointed because they have demonstrated their commitment to the organization, exercise ultimate control over the charity.

They come together at the Annual General Meeting where, among other things, they elect the Board of Trustees. The Board is the governing body of Rural Outreach Programme and meets with the Chief Executive Director and senior management staff every quarter, in order to take major strategic decisions for the organization. Rural Outreach Programme is a registered non-profit organization in Kenya.

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COVERAGE


ROP activities initially targeted one sub-location but have over time grown to cover the whole of Butere and adjoining divisions in Western Province of Kenya. For example, we have activities in Butere, Lurambi, Mumias and in Khwisero

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STAFF


In terms of personnel strength, ROP keeps to a minimum the personnel that would require personal emoluments. Instead it uses government officers and facilitates them to provide technical support to groups and also utilizes scholars at institutions of higher learning who serve as resource persons and research associates. ROP activities offer scholars a unique research opportunity and in turn ROP benefits from their technical expertise without having to employ them on a full time basis, thus keeping overhead costs down and spending more resources on actual activities and interventions. ROP receives requests and accepts some within its capability for university student attachment.

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MISSON STATEMENT

 

The program exists to build on local strengths and mobilizes resources to empower rural communities for the realiazation of good health, improved family income, environmental protection, and enhanced literacy levels in an equitable, just, sustainable and gender sensitive manner.

 

VISION

 

Rural Outreach Programme strives to create a healthy rural community able to live and enjoy an active dignified life, and to access and utilize both internal and external resources to the full, and willing to contribute fully to the development of families, communities, and the nation while upholding respect for others.

 

 

 

 

 

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