What are CLOUT Cares and CLOUT?
CLOUT Cares is a US tax-exempt 501(c)(3) charitable organization based in the United States. We work with and support CLOUT (Center for Livelihood Opportunities Unlimited and Technologies) with close oversight on a grant basis on a specific project in Kasavai, Kenya. CLOUT is a charitable, non-governmental organization (NGO) registered with the Ministry of Culture and Social Services of the Government of Kenya.
CLOUT identifies problems in vulnerable communities in Kenya, proposes low-cost technological interventions to address these challenges in a sustainable manner, and then helps members of the communities implement these interventions. The CLOUT Chief Executive Officer is Ms. Isabella Masinde. She is assisted by eight Board Members (Program Officers) from different ethnic groups and religious orientations. Four of these program officers work on the CLOUT project in Kasavai. All are volunteers and none receives any compensation. One of the Program Officers, Dr. Constance Ambasa-Shisanya, was the principal architect and initiator of the CLOUT program in Kasavai.
CLOUT Cares and its board of directors is didicated to what Mahatma Gandhi said, "You must be the change you want to see in the world."
Who are the CLOUT volunteers in Kasavai?
Dr. Constance Ambasa-Shisanya - Until 2007, Constance taught theology at Kenyata University in Nairobi. She now does HIV/AIDS research for Family Health International. She and her husband, Chris Shisanya, have three children and live in a suburb of Nairobi. They also have a "village" home nearly three hundred miles away in Kasavai. They both grew up very near Kasavai in Western Province. Constance was born in Esirulo. Constance and Chris are from the Luyha ethnic group and they spend as much time in Kasavai as the demands of modern life allow.
Constance is a CLOUT Program Officer for Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS. Her programs stress HIV/AIDS awareness, prevention, care, and treatment. They also address the socio-economic needs of AIDS widows, orphans, and vulnerable children. Connie's post-doctoral studies in HIV/AIDS education at Yale University in the 2004/2005 academic year focused on her desire to start the CLOUT project in Kasavai on her return to her home in Kenya. Her CLOUT project in Kasavai received official recognition from the Kenyan government and got underway in November, 2005, just two months before CLOUT Cares became involved.
Prof. Chris Shisanya - Chris teaches climatology at Kenyatta University in Nairobi. He was born in Lusiola, another small village near Kasavai in Western Province. As a technical advisor for CLOUT, Chris evaluates proposals developed by other CLOUT Program Officers and deals with administrative and budgetary matters with CLOUT Cares.
Ms. Truphena E. Maloba - Truphena is a CLOUT Program Officer for Community Development and a secondary school teacher. She organizes seminars for widows on micro-financing and agricultural technologies for improved livelihood. She and her husband, Boaz, and their children live in Mukumu, a town near Kasavai. Because of her proximity, she has been able to provide day-to-day and week-to-week contact between CLOUT and the widows, orphans, and vulnerable children of Kasavai. She is currently attending graduate school in Eldoret.
Mr. Boaz Maloba - Boaz is a CLOUT Program Officer for Education. He is also a secondary school teacher. He monitors the academic progress of the students assisted by CLOUT Cares and advises on how to better meet their needs. He also organizes drama and sports in schools with the theme of training children how to avoid contracting HIV infection.
Who are CLOUT Cares volunteers and members of the Board of Directors in the USA?
Terry and Sandy Kensler - Terry and Sandy live in Madison, Connecticut. They met Connie and Chris in Connecticut in August, 2005, just before Connie returned to Kenya after her post-doctoral study at Yale. Terry and Sandy were impressed by Connie's vision and ideas, they modified a planned trip to Africa and saw the CLOUT Kasavai project first hand in January, 2006. They immediately became involved with CLOUT, helping to mobilize the HIV/AIDS widows and orphans of Kasavai. Terry and Sandy founded CLOUT Cares, Inc. with other board members in the United States in 2007. They visit Kasavai annually.
Terry is the president of CLOUT Cares, Inc. He retired from his career as a research scientist with Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2005. Besides working with CLOUT Cares, he has been on the Board of Directors of the Madison Land Conservation Trust and is finance chair of Madison ABC (A Better Chance). Terry is an amateur photographer and he dabbles in woodworking, art framing and matting, and various sporting activities (Petanque d' Madison among them).
Sandy is the secretary of CLOUT Cares, Inc. Before she and Terry moved to Madison, Connecticut, she was a public and private school music teacher in Indiana. She began a new career in Connecticut and is now an established and well-known artist. Some of her work incorporating the people and habitat of Kenya and Tanzania can be seen at her website, www.KenslerArt.com. One-hundred percent of the selling price of her African paintings and prints of them goes to the widows and orphans of Kasavai through CLOUT Cares.
Sandy and Terry have two grown children and are the proud grandparents of five growing grandchildren - all working toward a better world.
Fillmore McPherson is the other current member of the CLOUT Cares Board of Directors in the USA. He is also the First Selectman of Madison.
We regret to inform you that we lost a founding board member in 2010. Erin Kallaugher died at her Madison home on September 12, 2010 after a long struggle with complications arising from a near fatal auto accident in 2005. Despite her disabilities, Erin also served on the board of directors of the Young Heroes Foundation (Swaziland), which she helped to create.
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