Battle to take the suffering out of Africa

Mike is at the sharp end of improving life for young people in Kenya

It is hard to imagine any two places more diverse, yet for father-of-three Mike Harrison, who has spent the last three years in the east African country, there have been no regrets in making the move.

"I do miss Edinburgh a lot," the 57-year-old development worker says, chatting by telephone from his rented home in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. Especially the winters. But in the UK we do live in a very consumer-led society, one which doesn't exist here. There is a big sense of community in Kenya."

One Mike has thrown himself into since he arrived as the deputy head of the UK Government's Kenya operation, led by the Department for International Development.

In charge of a 70 million funding programme, Mike and his team spend their days focused on how that money can be best spent to change the lives of ordinary Kenyan people who battle problems with education, health, social protection and humanitarian aid on scales unimaginable to people living quiet lives in Morningside, or indeed anywhere else in Edinburgh.

For us, it is impossible to envisage a life where education is not a right, rather something to be fought for; where a simple, cheap mosquito net can safe your life; or where women give birth in slums, often dying as a result, as they are unable to make the two-day walk to hospital for professional help.

Mike has just said goodbye to his three children, all former pupils at South Morningside Primary, who spent the festive period with him in Nairobi, but have now headed back to boarding school and university in England. It was after his wife died in 1999 that he decided to take leave from Edinburgh, raising the three of them alone while working on various developmental projects in far-flung locations, including Uganda, where they were partly schooled.

His wife, Pamela Baldwin, a well-known clinical psychologist in Edinburgh had lost her battle with breast cancer that year. Mike, his daughters Sophie, 21, Dominique, 18, and his son Sam, 16, still own a property in Edinburgh and consider it home, returning when they can to visit friends and take in the striking city skyline they miss very much.

"My children were all born in Edinburgh and think of it has their home," explains Mike. "I think to be a development worker you have to enjoy travelling and different cultures. You also have to be prepared to be uncomfortable, hungry or in unhygienic areas and my children have grown up to be good at this. They are happy and very confident. My daughter Dominique is actually a bit miserable at university in Brighton at the moment, though - she misses living in Kenya."

Of course, Mike could never deny his lifestyle in the African country is far removed from that of its poorest residents, a poverty he describes as "devastating", but one he is working hard to improve.

In the last five years, his team has delivered around 17 million insecticide-treated nets, helping to reduce child mortality by around 45 per cent.

"Malaria is a big problem in Kenya," explains Mike. "Yet a lot of our improvements come down to education - teaching people what the nets are for. Some people still use them for wedding dresses, or fishing nets, but the project has been very successful."

As have Britain's efforts to bring education to Kenya, by supporting its government's attempts to ensure every primary-aged pupil is given a free school place.

"We have helped get 1.5 million children into school since 2005, helping build classrooms, train teachers and make sure girls also get schooling," Mike explains. "We help supply text books too, but the real challenge is secondary education. A lot of children have to drop out, usually to help at home, often because their parents have died from Aids. Kenyans place a lot of emphasis on education though. If you ask a poor person what they would do if they had a pound in their pocket, they would say they'd send their children to school."

That says a lot, considering 46 per cent of people live below the poverty line, with only around 70p to live on each day.

Yet the UK Government can only do so much to help as it is unable to give money directly to the Kenyan authorities owing to the fear of corruption. All money must be channelled through civil society bodies, international non-government organisations, UN agencies and partners in the private sector.

"The Kenyan authority is corrupt and we would not know where the money was going if we handed it over," Mike explains. "One of the biggest problems is political corruption. The authorities do not really care about their people, everyone knows that. We do a lot of work trying to improve systems, 'civic education', so people know what is going on.

"The people love it and like that we are there, but the government does not and we get quite a backlash, often being told Kenya is no longer our 'colonial slave'. It's just nonsense.

"The government is not uniformly bad though, and there are good, honest people in there too. Kenya has moved on a lot in recent years and a lot of the old guard are very much on the way out."

For Mike, who was born in Swaziland, in Southern Africa, yet educated in Scotland, spending much of his varied career in Edinburgh, Stirling and Penicuik before heading overseas, his time in Kenya will soon come to an end.

Such postings usually last four years, meaning Mike is likely to wave goodbye by the end of the year.

"I am in no rush to move on," he laughs. "The country has seen some fantastic changes in development and the people are amazing and very hardworking."

But for now there are still major obstacles to overcome, including the effect of droughts which cripples almost a third of the population. "We have started providing cash to a quarter of these people so they can start to buy food, so that when the droughts come they do not have to sell their last goat, or the roof of their house, to survive," says Mike. "It's helping them to move on from a reliance on emergency aid and something we are hoping to roll out to a million people.

"After all, no-one here has a pension or a safety net. If you do not have a job, you are stuck."

How to help

To find out ways you can help make a difference to Kenya's poorest communities, visit the website for the Department of International Development, www.dfid.gov.uk.

"Taking an interest is a great starting point," explains Mike Harrison. "It is easy to live an isolated life in Edinburgh, but there is a big world out there that is very unfair and unequal."

Money and clothes can be donated to the cause, and there are also opportunities to volunteer in the country, while also developing links through schools, often by exchanging letters with pupils.