HOPE
worldwide Kenya saw a new 3-year program, WICOH begin on 1st November 2007. WICOH is an acronym for Wal-Mart Industrial Centers of HOPE. It is funded by Wal-Mart, which has over 3000 shops worldwide, making it the largest chain of supermarkets globally. The program is indebted to HOPE foundation in India (who had been funded by Wal-Mart the year before) and HOPE
worldwide global headquarters in Philadelphia who were instrumental in helping to secure the funding.
WICOH is principally an HIV/AIDS-at-the-workplace program with a strong community outreach component. It envisages establishing Centers of HOPE through which the workplace programs will be linked to the community for the benefit of the workers and their families. The main target workplaces are the factories producing merchandise for export to Wal-Mart in Kenya. The program will run in four centers namely: Mukuru, Kitengela, Mombasa and Eldoret.
WICOH will build on the existing HOPE
worldwide Kenya strengths in the areas of workplace programming, VCT, community mobilization, Peer Education, MAP and blood donor mobilization. In addition, WICOH brings vocational and entrepreneurial skills training for the target groups which will fill a huge gap especially among the youth in the program areas.
