OPPEI

About us

Okoa Pastoralists Poverty Eradication Initiative (OPPEI) is a social, charitable, non-political, and non-profit-making Community-Based Organization. It was registered on February 02, 2016, under the Department of Social Development with the goal of supporting marginalized populations to attain resilience, self-reliance, and durable solutions for the residents of Turkana West through education (formal and informal), livelihoods, and social protection/ skills for life, governance, and peacebuilding and conflict transformation. The vision of OPPEI is to improve the quality of life of the challenged community through education and livelihoods or skills for life or technical skills and its mission is to aspire for durable solutions for the marginalized and deprived populations through quality education and skills for life interventions among the host and the refugees. OPPEI operates within the jurisdictions of Turkana West sub-county comprising of seven wards including Kakuma, Kalobeyei, Lopur, Letea, Songot, Lokichoggio, and Nanam. We are running skills for life project funded by the World University Service of Canada and Swisscontact, here we engage men and women trainees between the age of 18-25 for technical training including hairdressing, dressmaking, block making, horticulture, metal works, welding, and plumbing and social skills training such as life skills sexual reproductive health, work readiness, entrepreneurship, literacy and numeracy, and financial literacy. On the same token, we also run back-to-school projects with support from the World University Service of Canada. We return vulnerable girls who left school because of low household income and pregnancies to school. Finally, we also partner with Xavier Project in capacity strengthening of the staff.

Annual Operating Budget: 140,000 USD

Annual Beneficiary Reach: 450

Our Partnerships

Our Current Funding Partners

Our current partners are World University Service of Canada (WUSC), Swisscontact, Xavier Project (XP), and Windle International Kenya (WIK).

Previous Funding Partners

Swisscontact and World University Service of Canada (WUSC)

Our Network Affiliations

Turkana Trust Fund and Ateger Peace Coalition

Optional Support Partner

Support Partners can play an optional role bridging various gaps between RLOs and their supporters around the world.

Additional Information

Our Community and beneficiaries

All our beneficiaries are from the Kakuma host, Lokichoggio, Kalobeyei host, Kakuma refugee, and Kalobeyei settlement communities. We did our first implementation of the Phase 2 Skill for life project funded by Swisscontact within the lead time of 2018-2019. We were able to reach the target of 240(40M:200F) beneficiaries who graduated after receiving technical skills such as hairdressing, tailoring, catering, weaving, and barber, and social skills such as literacy and numeracy, sexual reproductive health, financial literacy, work readiness, and entrepreneurship. For now, we are implementing a Back-to-School Project targeting 200 girls under the support of the World University Service of Canada. We have managed to return 80 girls to secondary schools, 60 girls to primary schools, and 60 girls who received technical skills and social skills. We pay schools fees and provide basic items necessary for learning for school girls and provide training and start-up kits materials to girls receiving technical and social skills. The beneficiaries of the WUSC project are from the host and refugee communities. Phase 3 skills for life project with the support from Swisscontact targeting 250(60M:190F) trainees implementation in progress. For effective implementation of the project, we carry awareness, mobilization, and career guidance within the communities of Lopur and Kakuma Wards. The technical training so far received by beneficiaries includes; dressmaking, hairdressing, horticulture, blacksmith, welding, plumbing, block making, bakery, and motorcycle repair. Finally, apart from WUSC and Swisscontact, we also partner with Windle International Kenya for mentorship, guidance, and counseling programs, Xavier Project for capacity strengthening of the organization staff, local leaders for community entry, and County government of Turkana for business groups and MAVUNO groups registration.

Other Operating Locations

We operate within the borders of Turkana West Sub-County comprising of 7 Wards including; Kakuma Ward, Lopur Ward, Kalobeyei Ward, Nanam Ward, Lokichoggio Ward, Songot Ward, and Letea Ward.

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