MOUNT Kenya Umbrella Self Help Group in Mathira East District will benefit from more than Sh 0.5 million grant from the United States African Development Foundation Fund in conjunction with the U.S Embassy’s Special Self-Help Fund.
Signing the agreement at Gikumbo village yesterday, acting US ambassador in Kenya Robert Godec said the money will help the group expand farming and processing of mushrooms .
Godec said the money will also assist the group members to acquire essential equipment such as a drying machine, grinder and a refrigerator. He said that USADF is an agency established to support African solutions for economic and social challenges.
“The fund is meant to support communit- based organisations across Kenya by providing small grants aimed at improving living conditions,” Godec said.
“The group will produce and distribute its own products, including oyster mushroom powder, thereby increasing profitability and ultimately creating new and sustainable jobs for the community.”
The group chairman Paul Muchiri said they have been operating without enough funds. He said the grant will enable them boost its activities. The ambassador said the American people "feel strongly about contributing to community development throughout the world".
USADF is an independent U.S government agency established to support African-designed and African-driven solutions that address grassroots economic and social challenges while the Embassy’s Fund supports community based organizations across Kenya by providing small grants aimed at improving living conditions.The Group’s chairman Paul Muchiri said their organization is made up of three small groups and in total they are 65 members and they started growing mushrooms for the last four years.
“We grow two types of Mushroom that is oyster and button. The button type we sell them while fresh at Sh 400 per kilo while the oyster type they dry them and sell at Sh 1, 200 per kilo,” he added.
Muchiri said most of their members are HIV victims and usually benefit a lot from the business saying currently they cannot meet the mushroom demand in local supermarkets.
“We shall use the fund to learn more on mushroom growing. Earlier, we had taken three of our members to Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology - JKUAT where each paid Shs. 13,000 for the training,” said Muchiri.
“Our people need to be educated on benefits of Mushroom to their health. Majority of us don’t know mushrooms are new innovated fooodstuffs,” Muchiri added.
He observed that each of the three groups which include; Gikumbo, Mutethia and Gariaga- ini will establish three more producing units with the help of the grant from the U.S. agency with aim to increase their annual mushroom production.
