WOPLAH’s Mother: A spotlight on the director

The WOPLAH director: Phassy Shichinga Mbone

It was early 2004 when inspiration struck the director of WOPLAH, Phassy Shichinga Mbone. As HIV and AIDS tore across East Africa, she understood the importance of providing stability and options for nutrition and work for those impacted by the disease. In mentoring two individuals living positively with HIV in Mumias, Kenya, she realized “that while a sick person drinks porridge and becomes strong they can maintain a goat because it is easy.” This thought was the inspiration for the foundation of WOPLAH four years later in 2008. With the help of 11 Ambassadors of Hope, they were able to create a support network in the Western Kenya community. Since its founding, WOPLAH has supported more than 4000 individuals living positively, implemented the creation of kitchen gardens, support groups, goat and chicken rearing projects, educational awareness and economic empowerment opportunities. 

20 years later, Phassy Shichinga Mbone, still stands at the forefront of growth and development in WOPLAH. Her compound currently is home to multiple fish ponds, cows, goats, chickens, kitchen gardens with fruits and vegetables, bee hives, a mushroom structure, a house that workers are in the process of building for future interns and WOPLAH guests among other sustainable projects. 

The kitchen garden stands as the gold standard example of what a kitchen garden can be and currently a plot of the land is designated for agricultural students to learn about sustainable and organic farming. 

Program Coordinator, Edwin Wetoyi, and an intern pick veggies and the interns hold freshly picked strawberries

On any given day you may find her roaming her property, caring for each project and helping educate those working on them. Most mornings and evenings, you can find the director in town working diligently selling milk on behalf of WOPLAH at the WOPLAH dairy center. She fastidiously checks the books and explains the process while compassionately engaging with each costumer that comes in for their daily milk. The milk, much of which comes from her farm, then supports individuals, a local hospital and many hotels in the area. Currently the director says that the biggest challenge is the finances. Funding all the projects is no easy task, but with sustainable development and circular banking, in which profits from one project support other projects, she hopes to continue to grow WOPLAH.

An employee milks a cow (left) and an intern works to bottle milk for sale at WOPLAH dairy (right)

This week the director will be attending a Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) meeting. The FAO is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. The director was selected as the only female farmer and one of two farmers from the county to attend, participate and learn at this event. She was selected in hopes that she will be able to teach fellow Kakamega County farmers the techniques on fish farming that she learns. 

As a mother to all, each time the director engages with WOPLAH interns she imparts words of wisdom. Most recently, she told the interns about her dreams of continuing to grow WOPLAH’s reach. She hopes that current interns will always remember their time in Mumias and that they will come back in the future. She hopes that when they do come back WOPLAH will have continued to expand the farm and even establish a farm store on the property with the dream of making healthy food more accessible to all of the community. She said “If you can’t have dreams, you have given up. So always keep dreaming.”