What is the Imani Project?
The Imani Project is a partnership between Americans and Africans, dedicated to acting against HIV/AIDS and improving health conditions in rural Kenya. The goal of the Imani Project is to enable and empower Kenyan villagers to become educators, advocates, caregivers and HIV/AIDS activists in their own communities.
The start of the Imani Project
The Imani Project began in 2004 when Marlene Anderson, a social worker from Portland, Oregon, first visited the Sabaki River delta on a birding expedition and met a young boy on the beach who introduced her to his village. Marlene saw the crisis wrought by the HIV/AIDS pandemic in rural Kenya: illness, death, poverty, and children without families to care for them. Determined to help, she returned, first alone, then over the years with volunteers. Today the Imani Project is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization in Oregon with a working Board of Directors here, and with a Director and volunteer staff in Kenya to manage operations there.
What kinds of services are provided by the Imani Project?
- Sponsorship program for 80+ children who have been orphaned by AIDS
- School uniforms for orphans and other children deemed most needy
- HIV prevention education in schools and villages (in English and Kiswahili)
- Distribution of condoms
- HIV testing and referral
- HIV+ support group
- Transportation for HIV+ people to the hospital to receive medications
- Flour, garden seeds, beans, tea and rice to village families
- Education about diarrheal disease, and its prevention and treatment
- Medical supplies for local Community Health Workers
- A composting toilet for two villages
- Field plowing for HIV+ people unable to care for their own farms
- Online program to provide goats, ducks and chickens to families in need
Dates and Details
The American Imani Project was formed in January 2005 and incorporated as a Non-Governmental Organization( NGO) in January 2008. It received the 501(c)3 U.S. nonprofit status in March 2007. Our federal ID number is 26-1682325.
American Imani Project
The American Imani Project is based on Portland, Oregon. It is a non-profit or 501 C3 organization. Marlene Anderson, Executive Director, travels to Kenya once a year to work with the same 20 villages on the coast of Kenya. As many as seven volunteers have accompanied her. One year is devoted to HIV/AIDS education in schools and villages, and in alternate years medical clinics are done. This includes taking nurses, nurse practitioners, and doctors. Other activities here in the United States include fund raising, administrative duties, social media use, and increasing community presence. The Imani Project is based on Connection, Commitment, and Mutual Respect.
Kenyan Imani Project
The Kenyan Imani Project is a Community Based Organization; also a non-profit. The Chairperson of the Kenyan Imani Project is Francis Kahindi Mwaduna. Francis and twenty Imani Project volunteers (villagers) have been carefully trained to continue providing services year round to HIV/AIDS orphans and their guardian families, HIV+ Support Group Members, and teaching HIV/AIDS prevention in schools and villages.