The YMA has worked with a number of International charities and has gained experience and expertise from these collaborations.
Many of these have been implemented over the years in different ways i.e.:
1. Changing food aid packs from just fulfilling necessary requirements, to becoming balanced nutritionally and including items that even the youngest of babies can benefit from.
2. Presentational expertise – the YMA has had charity workers from abroad offer training in photography, design and IT management to our staff to equip us in utilising technology and resources properly to maximise donation income.
3. Coordination for massive distribution projects. We have worked with both local individuals and charities to create an ongoing database of villages and their population figures in many areas of Kenya. Utilising this with organisational expertise and policies to enforce transparency and accountability learned from foreign charities, the YMA has become extremely capable in this field to Kenyan and international requirements.
4. Income Generating Projects (IGP).
This last category is truly revolutionary in the world of charity and allows the poor to escape the ‘cycle of poverty’. The reason for this is that it aims to stop charity being necessary and instead change the economic environment enough to let people get jobs, earn and spend money, and in turn create more jobs.
These IGPs will be owned and run by the YMA to create employment opportunities and generate income for the locals. Although the YMA are to run such projects, their purpose is to break-even instead of being aimed at profitability. While, certainly profit would be welcomed to continue running and expanding these projects, the YMA will not lose sight of the fact that the ones who need to make money will be the employed.
An example of this is the YMA’s Garissa Farm Project and the new Hydraform Project. In addition, the YMA is always looking into similar new projects in different sizes to continue this purpose. Projects like recycling plants, brick and block-making, and more intensive farming.
