HELITECH providing healthy solutions through organic foods

Ngige wa Gitau is a philosopher. Speaking to him you can feel the wisdom he has despite being a youth. He is the Founder of Helitech which is an acronym for Healthy Living Technology. He did a Bachelor of Philosophy and an added course marketing and has been using that deepened understanding of life to prosper and uplift other young people through his organization.
He started out in 2012 by studying crop husbandry and rabbit rearing. He is actually a certified rabbit breeder. Later in 2013 he did some research on herbs agro-ecology to better understand how to take care of them.
Two years later in 2015,he founded and registered Helitech. Helitech was founded on three pillars, one was to establish an organic agribusiness platform for youth employment. The second pillar is creating alternate livelihoods for established farmers who aren’t finding enough value in the regular crops like coffee, tea or maize by introducing them to high value herbs.
The third pillar is providing healthy solutions through organic food. “Food plays a major role in solving lifestyle diseases” says Ngige. This is something he has implemented over and over. It all started when a Father at the Catholic parish of Githunguri had trouble with his blood pressure and was on regular medication but there was little change.
This is when Ngige put together an organic foods package for the Father to consume and the herbs helped manage the Father’s blood pressure. The Father was so grateful that he offered Ngige land to plant the herbs at the adjacent Holy Family Minor Hospital which is run by the church.
This generosity continued and now Helitech manages similar plots in 14 Catholic parishes within Kiambu County. They have additional farms in Kilifi, Nyeri and Engineer in Nyandarua county.
Helitech has helped 40 young people who have gone through the organization by getting training or direct employment. One of those beneficiaries is the current farm manager George Gathuru. He joined Helitech in 2016 when he was tasked to manage one of the farms in preparation for a training of farmers. He was sponsored by Helitech to attend training at JKUAT for a certificate in nutrition course as well as a certificate in food production at the Agricultural Technology Development Center (ATDC) in Ruiru. He is also a rabbit veterinary certified by the Ministry of Agriculture.
He practices cunni-culture which is the rearing of rabbits and their complete use without wastage. The rabbit itself provides urine and manure for use in the farm, it is also used for meat and hides. He also practices vermiculture which is the rearing of worms for fertilizer, for reproduction for sale and even as feed for chicken.
He also manages the planting of herbs and spices. “Herbs are easy to manage because you use herbs to protect other herbs” he says about organic farming. “Herbs also give you high returns and cure lifestyle diseases” says George.
He confesses to use a three step process. The first step is to farm the herbs, step two is to sell the health benefits and once this is done, customers will buy the products.
They plant 23 types of herbs and spices. These are thyme, hibiscus, sage, mint, oregano, marjorum, chives, lemon balm, lemon grass, lemon bee brush, rubarb, rosemary, rocket argula, fennel, dill, baobab, moringa, parsley, aloe vera, pepino melon, gooseberries, stevia and an assortment of superseeds like black seed, chia seeds, flax seeds and pumpkin seeds. They also have honey.
Helitech is a member of the Kenya Organic Agriculture Network (KOAN) and the Kenya Agribusiness Agroindustry Alliance. They have tried to partner with as many organizations as possible including the County Government’s Ministry of Agriculture as well as the Cheer-Up program. Cheer-Up provides them with solar driers and grinding services.
Helitech wants to demonstrate to young people that you can make money from herbs and also help them to understand and manage lifestyle diseases. The organization has also registered a retail arm that sells the dried and ground herbs and spices. Afya Choice Foods has a retail outlet at Githunguri town.
They also offer consultancy services on farming practices and linkages with the market. Their vision for the next five years is to create a processing plant to dry and grind the herbs and spices. They also want to run a schools program to teach students about farming as a business.
Their biggest dream is to create an organic foods health rehabilitation center that people suffering different health problems can be admitted to and put on a holistic meal program like they did with the Father.