The Pokot can be divided into two distinct groups: The Hill Pokot and the Plains Pokot. These groups can be subdivided into Pastoralists (Cow People), Cultivators (Corn People) and Nomads. The Cultivators account for about a quarter of the total population of Pokot with the other two sub-groups making up the balance. The population of Pokot speakers is estimated, most recently in 1997, as to be somewhere in the region of 150,000 although figures as high as almost twice that have been put forward.
I first visited the area in 1996 as part of my undergraduate studies at UEA and spent a week at the Marich Pass Field Studies Centre (MPFSC). I was immediately overcome by the beauty of both the area and the Pokot people themselves. I referred to Marich and the surrounding area as MY GARDEN OF EDEN.
Marich is a small village consisting of a small population, a number of DUKAS (local shops), a Primary School, a Police Post, a church and a clinic. It was also the site for the camp built to accommodate the workers who built the road from Marich northwards to Lodwar and beyond to Sudan.
The MPFSC is nestled in riverine forest on the banks of the Moruny River which flows through the Cherangani Hills and finally through the Marich Pass and northwards to Lake Turkana near Lodwar.
The MPFSC was the brainchild of the late Dr. David Roden. He wanted to build a field studies centre where students from all over the world could visit an area which is still relatively remote and continues to support a people who live as they have for centuries. At the same time they could learn from the Pokot people and live within their community from which David recruited staff for the centre. The staffing of the MPFSC together with the use of traditional methods of construction, utilising, whenever possible, locally produced produce, reducing, as much as possible, the environmental impact of the project on the surrounding area and limiting what had to be brought in to make his dream a reality made the centre a truly eco-friendly project.
In addition to offering once in a lifetime opportunities for students to visit a rapidly vanishing lifestyle he encouraged others to help change the lives of the Pokot people through the provision of wells, a maize mill, a school dormitory and more recently a school and a clinic. He also, personally, sponsored many local children to complete their education and many local people are eternally grateful to David for his help
It is vitally important for his work to continue and it is for this reason it has been decided to establish a charity in order to continue the work that he started. Through this others will be given the opportunity to go to school and to be provided with basic medical care................. some of the basic necessities that we, in the Western World, simply take for granted. These are, in West Pokot, a privilege for the few who are able to afford it and for others a mere pipe dream and for others the provision of schools and basic medical just does not exist.
The bottom line for the majority of people in West Pokot is that without education they cannot better themselves and aspire to a better quality of life. Without the provision of basic health care to treat pneumonia or malaria there will be no life................... this is a simple fact of everyday life for those living in West Pokot.
We can halp change their lives and save lives by raising funds or donating money to this worthy cause.
Just £3.50 will support a child through school for 3 months!
£10,000 will build a school or a clinic!
Build a School, Adopt a School
