Sauri, Kenya

Located in western Kenya, the Sauri cluster lies in Yala Division, Siaya District, Nyanza Province.  The general topography is undulating with ephemeral streams, rivers, and wetlands meandering through rounded hills. 

Sauri covers an area of 8 km2 and is a conglomerate of 11 villages.  Nearly all citizens are Kenyan from the Luo ethnic group.  The main languages spoken are Dholuo, Kiswahili, and English.  The average household size is 5 people.

Sauri has a strong community system, but lacks the revenue for basic services necessary to sustain economic growth. Most households are subsistence or sub-subsistence farmers, and many residents rely on remittances from people living and working outside of Sauri to supplement their meager farm incomes. Between 60 and 70% of the population live on less than $1 per day.

Village Characteristics by Sector

Agriculture is the primary livelihood for residents of Sauri. Rainfall is bimodal and helps to define the planting seasons: there is a long rainy season from March to June and a short rainy season from September to December. Land area per household for farming is usually less than 0.5 hectares, which is generally insufficient to support an average family. Prior to the project, farmers produced an average of 82 kg of maize per person per year, a deficit of 18 kg per child and 38 kg per adult. The main crop is maize; farmers also produce beans, sweet potatoes, bananas, plantains, cassava, kale, tomatoes and onions.

Sauri is beset by hunger, AIDS and malaria. Malnutrition and poor health plague the community. People in the villages have limited access to medical care and most are too poor to buy the few medicines that are available. The average distance to a clinic or medical care was 5 km over rough terrain. There was no medical doctor at Yala Sub-District Hospital until January 2005, when the Millennium Village project brought one in to split his time between the hospital and the Sauri clinic. Sauri is a holoendemic area for malaria, meaning that malaria is prevalent year-round. In Sauri Cluster overall, Ministry of Health statistics show that 52% of cluster residents are afflicted with malaria and 24% with HIV/AIDS.

There are three primary schools within Sauri Millennium Village: Bar Sauri, Nyamninia and Bar Touro. There is one secondary school near the western border of Sauri. One of the schools (Nyamninia) has a connection to the electricity grid, but the others have no grid, generator or other high-wattage electricity supply. A limited school lunch program was in place prior to the start of interventions but it was only available to less than 20% of primary students.

Water sources in Sauri range from springs (protected and unprotected), shallow wells, piped water and rainwater harvesting (RWH). Springs are not easily accessible to the majority and residents walk an average of 300m, sometimes up steep slopes, to a water source. Many homesteads have informal RWH systems with metal roof and gutters discharging into buckets. However, approximately 20% of homesteads have only grass-thatched roofs, which do not allow for RWH. The Yala River Piped Water Supply, an extensive water system drawing water from the Yala River, was installed by the government in the late 1970s. Since then, it has rarely functioned properly.

National Impact
The positive experiences and lessons learned in Sauri are helping to catalyze support from the Kenyan national government, which has taken the initiative to expand the project to the district level. Nine Millennium Districts, including the Siaya District where Sauri is located, have been identified by the government as priority locations for scaling-up the project. Translating the success seen in Sauri to the district level is a crucial step being taken by the Kenyan government and is critical to the national effort for meeting the Millennium Development Goals and lifting millions of Kenyans out of extreme poverty.

Intervention Highlights
The positive experiences and lessons learned in Sauri are helping to catalyze support from the Kenyan national government. Nine Millennium Districts, including the Siaya District where Sauri is located, have been identified by the government as priority locations for scaling-up the project. Translating the success seen in Sauri to the district level is a crucial step being taken by the Kenyan government and is critical to the national effort for meeting the Millennium Development Goals and lifting millions of Kenyans out of extreme poverty.

Agriculture: Increase crop yields and decrease hunger