Welcome to Gokinia Community.
Gokinia Community is a volunteer community based organization that was founded by professional and experienced volunteers in 2003 to reach the community through community resources and development support services.
The word “Gokinia” means to nurture, secure and ensure holistic growth and development.
The organization was founded with the mission of nurturing and empowering the communities to fight poverty and hunger, disease, improve their livelihoods and enable them be self-reliant.
Vision
Our organization wishes to see the community using the available community resources and support services for positive development and transformation of lives. This will be achieved through appreciating, using and valuing the communities’ cultures, traditions, beliefs and values.
The organization works a devotion to support street children and families, People Living With HIV and AIDS (PLWHAs), their families and other vulnerable and/ marginalized groups, All Orphans and other vulnerable children (AOVCs), Youths, Women groups, schools and school youths groups, Caregivers and disabled in the community.
Ø Reflect God’s nature and character through humanitarian and community development activities.
Ø Help communities in dire need through planned development activities and cooperate implementation.
Ø Work towards sustainable changes in the community.
Ø Build and maintain good relationships with our stakeholders/partners/religious communities to achieve positive and sustainable community change.
Ø Advocate for and assist in increased use of the communities’ capacities to care for and responsibly manage their natural environmental recourses.
Ø Facilitate the right and ability of all children to attain their full potential and assist in ensuring the child’s survival to achieve that potential.
Ø Promote and expand equitable and participatory girl/women involvement in the process.
Ø Develop and build communities’/ groups’ local systems and networks to respond to emergencies issues.
Ø Improve the health of disadvantaged people as a means of escaping poverty and quality of their lives through capacity building to charge of their own health care.
Ø Empower the communities’ resources, initiated support activities and development services run by them to solve their problems.
- Eradicate poverty and hunger through various strategies in the community
- Promote the welfare of the vulnerable members of the community through support in Agriculture, health education, entrepreneurship, and other life skills
- Increase awareness to the public and/ community on HIV/AIDS and effects.
- Participation in conservation of our environment and water source – catchments.
- Facilitate and increase awareness on good environmental sanitary standards.
- Participate in community steered projects for faster development.
- Setting both local and international networking systems in soliciting support.
- Solicit financial, material and skills and knowledge form Community Based Organizations, Government Departments, religious institutions and other interested parties through networking and collaboration.
- Support the less fortunate members in the society such as the aged, orphans, those affected and infected with HIV/AIDS the handicapped and the disabled persons.
- Provide free guidance and counseling services to the school pupils, students, school drop-outs, teenagers, girl child mothers, street children, orphans, those affected and infected with HIV/AIDS and others in relation to their needs in collaboration with relevant departments like Ministry of Education, Ministry of Agriculture Children Department, Ministry of Health, NGOs among others
- Create real life success cases through groups’ support.
- Influence and provide volunteer support to policy makers for children in relation to Children Act 2001.
- Provision of intensive services by/to the youth, adults and other dislocated workers/retired/unemployed members of the community by group members to ensure that the community resources/strengths are incorporated for development – comprehensive and specialized assessment of skills levels, development of individual self-sustaining projects/activities (Employment plans), group counseling, cases management, short-term pre-vocational services.
- Empower the street families and other vulnerable to access to the basic needs, fight disease and poverty and have improved livelihoods.
- Advocate for Human Rights for all target groups; people living with HIV and AIDs, All Orphans and other vulnerable children (AOVCs) and other vulnerable in the society
- Facilitate and support in the provision of medical services and voluntary counseling and testing
Strategies and approaches do the organization use or apply
o Conducting home visits to provide volunteer guidance and counselling and referral services to People living with HIV and AIDs (PLWHAs), AOVCs and other vulnerable groups.
o To strengthen and improve care and support of PLWHAs, AOVCs and those living with them
o To change attitude and community responses towards PLWHAs and families through stigma reduction interventions and strengthening HIV/AIDs interventions
o Training of street families, street children – girls and boys on HBC, HIv and TB, STIs, and prevention
o Community mobilization and sensitization to participate and support the target groups and be able monitor, evaluate and sustain the projects
o Facilitating and enhancing networking and collaboration activities to enable target groups’ needs are met as well as avoiding reduplication of resources
o Initiation of resourceful leisure activities for the PLWHAs, youths, AOVCs, street children and other vulnerable
o Empower the community on best ways of Behavior Change Communication (BCC) through video shows outreach to community members.
o Develop and distribute IEC materials for BCC in order to reduce stigma
o Conduct BCC campaigns through theatre activities and five theatre groups to be funded to convey the information to community members.
o Resources mobilization from well-wishers to support the target group
o Initiation of feeding programmes for orphans and other vulnerable in schools
o Initiation of income generating and learning activities at community (household) and school set-up for projects sustainability and skills transfer through community based organizations and school based groups.
o Increase community resource persons accessibility to PLWHAs and caregivers by conducting home visits mobilize and sensitize community on HIV/AIDs through facilitation.
o Providing trainings to the community recourse persons, caregivers, PLWHAs, AOVCs, opinion leaders and children on Home Based Care, VCT, care for the PLWHAs, AOVCs, other vulnerable and the caregivers, Human Rights, STIs and other communicable diseases, Environmental conservations, group dynamics, and project initiation and sustainability.
o Initiation of food security projects