Marilyn Cohn's Vision For A Self-Sufficient Village Could Offer A New Model For Rural Development In Africa

In rural western Kenya, a 20-acre site in Kwanza, which is 12 kilometers outside Kitale, is being developed around an ambitious question: what would community development look like if the essential ingredients of daily life were designed to support one another?

Marilyn Cohn, founder of Chosen Children International (CCI), is pursuing an answer through a proposed self-sufficient village that brings education, healthcare, vocational training, and renewable energy into a single development model.

The project draws on Cohn's 26 years in humanitarian work, including her experience with World Relief in the Democratic Republic of the Congo following the Rwandan genocide. Assigned to support children separated from their families, she trained a team of 12 social workers working with children who had experienced trauma and displacement. The experience prompted her to consider what a more permanent approach to care might require.

"During the time of the Rwandan genocide, I was hired by a relief organization," Cohn recalls. She describes children living in United Nations tents, with eight to ten children sharing each tent alongside a house mother. The experience informed her original vision for a children's village, although the concept eventually grew into a wider community-development initiative.

Cohn traces the idea further back to her faith and an early sense of being called to work in Africa. A research trip to Kenya and Uganda in 1997 helped determine where the project would take shape. According to Cohn, a Kenyan government official helped secure the land after responding positively to her proposal.

The distinction between a children's home and a functioning community is fundamental to the project. "I'm building a self-sufficient, eco-friendly village. It's community development," Cohn explains.

CCI intends to reserve residential care for children who have no relatives or suitable alternative placements. Its wider ambition is to establish a community where families can access essential services and develop livelihoods. The organisation's website identifies Kwanza, near Kitale in Trans-Nzoia County, as the location of its first village, with the land intended to support facilities serving the surrounding population as well.

Education is among the first priorities. CCI already operates a preschool on the property, with plans by January 2027 to expand into primary education before eventually establishing secondary schooling. Cohn notes that overcrowded classrooms are a serious concern in the area, with some schools accommodating as many as 80 children in one room. The school limits classes to 25 students, according to her account.

Vocational education is intended to give young people and adults practical routes into employment. Cohn says the organization is preparing to establish a trade school offering tailoring, computer science, carpentry, masonry, and more, with sewing machines already acquired and computers planned. A proposed maize-processing plant would provide another economic opportunity by processing the crop into packaged maize and flour, a staple that, Cohn explains, is used to prepare ugali, a common food across Kenya.

According to Cohn, employment also has a social dimension. She links the lack of work opportunities in the area to alcohol misuse among some residents, particularly men who have few productive outlets. CCI has previously conducted training connected to a 12-step recovery program and hopes to expand that work alongside vocational instruction. The underlying proposition is that economic participation can help people establish greater independence while addressing some of the pressures affecting households.

Healthcare and water access form another part of the plan. Cohn points to the difficulties residents face reaching medical facilities in Kitale, particularly women requiring urgent assistance during childbirth. A hospital or health facility on the property would bring treatment closer to the community, as at the moment there is only one district hospital with limited resources within the area. She also plans to develop a reliable water source for local residents and livestock, building on the stream that already runs through the land.

Environmental sustainability is intended to shape the village's infrastructure. Cohn outlines plans for solar electricity, alongside exploration of alternative fuels derived from crops such as maize and sunflowers. Biogas and other renewable-energy systems are also under consideration. These proposals would need investment and practical implementation, but the ambition is to reduce reliance on external utilities while making essential services more sustainable to operate.

The scale of the undertaking presents a substantial funding challenge. Cohn identifies the proposed healthcare facility, maize-processing plant, and schools among the major investment priorities. She hopes the Kwanza site will eventually demonstrate how communities elsewhere in Kenya and across Africa could develop similar systems around their own resources and needs.

The model's significance will ultimately depend on what can be built and made accessible to local residents. Cohn's humanitarian experience has given the project its starting point; its longer-term test will be whether a village designed around education, healthcare, and livelihoods can translate that vision into durable community infrastructure.