Samburu integrated program (SIP)

Samburu district in Northern Kenya is home to a pastoralist
population of 154,000 Samburu, Turkana, Somali ethnic groups.
Samburu form 90% of the population and they keep goats, sheep,
cattle sand camels.
The district is one of the most marginalized in the country with
83% of the population living below the national poverty line. Basic
services on health, education and others are scarce or are totally
lacking in some parts of the district. SIP is a grass root NGO
organization in 2000 that was initiated by the people from Nyiro
and Baragoi division in order to empower and enable the
pastoralist community to identify, address and overcome their
problems with dignity.
The project has supported two primary schools to have access to
clean water, put up class rooms, and initiate income generating
projects. HIV/AIDS prevalence rate is 15.8% and SIP has carried
out community education and the project has successfully
intervened on the male circumcision rite of passage by ensuring
that the community adapts the use of one knife per a boy because
of the risk of transmitting HIV/AIDS. In addressing the high levels
of poverty and pursuing its sustainable development agenda in
samburu SIP draws its operation framework from three key
thematic areas of intervention; namely, emergency response and
poverty reduction, capacity building and development, and health,
water and sanitation.
Guided by the above areas of need in Samburu District SIP has
based its intervention on a strategy to empower the community’s
social institutions and households to overcome their own problems
and improve the standards of living.