Food & Water Security Projects.
KENYA
COMFORT THE CHILDREN - Maai Mahui, Kenya: Groups who choose to work with our host partner, Comfort the Children, contribute to educational opportunities as a sustainable way to reduce poverty. The first group of DWC volunteers started a demonstration organic garden near the Transit Hotel and also started construction of a kitchen at the Maai Mahiu Primary School. They spent considerable time working side by side with their Maai Mahiu partner secondary school students and continuing the development of their pre-determined cultural exchange program. The second group completed the construction of the demonstration garden and the primary school kitchen and then constructed an additional, larger community garden at the school. They also installed cement floors in 6 classrooms in the primary school. Today, as a result, children are learning how to plant and maintain water efficient organic gardens and to care for their own trees. The kitchen staff now feeds lunch to 1200 students that is cooked inside on a fuel efficient stove. The six classrooms are much cleaner and safer for the children.
ACCESS (Action Crew on Community Environment for Sustainable Services) - Naro Moru, Kenya: Our other host partner is ACCESS, a non-profit organization based in Naro Moru at the foot of Mt. Kenya, about 2 hours north of Nairobi. The entire Mt. Kenya area has been severely deforested and faces water shortages. Our first group, from UBC/TRU, travelled to Manyatta in July/August 2010 and began construction of a 50,000 litre water tank for the village. There are currently four tanks that serve the village; however, during the dry season, water is most often rationed and the villagers do not have sufficient water for crop production. Volunteers continue to work install pipes and build water tanks within the community in order to help increase food security and ensure enough water supply for the village.
Volunteer Experience Schedule KENYA
CAMBODIA
EQUITABLE CAMBODIA - Chamcar Bei, Cambodia: One the most impoverished countries in the world, Cambodia is still recovering after 30 years of violence and repression. Volunteers support a community-led participatory development project in the village of Chamcar Bei, which is one of the last holdouts of the Khmer Rouge. Chamcar Bei is a village with a population of about 3,000 and covers an area of about 20 sq. km, and it has only a very small commercial centre. It located in the Kep province which is one of the poorest and least developed regions of Cambodia and lacks basic infrastructure. Chamcar Bei is renowned for being the last stand of the Khmer Rouge, who finally laid down their arms in 1996, almost 20 years after the height of the regime.
Volunteers work on locally driven projects that involve food security and vocational training in integrated farming and renewable energy technology. Project activities also including helping to harvest rice.
Volunteer Experience Schedule CAMBODIA
INDIA
SAYHOG SANTHAN - Udaipur, India: Located in the Thar Desert, Rajasthan is one of India's poorest states where the lack of water is a pervasive problem. Poor land management has compounded the severity of this problem which threatens the livelihood of families whose survivals depends on their use of land. Volunteers work directly with subsistence farmers in the construction of small sub-service dams, water barriers, wells and land partitions.
These structures range from rock and cement walls to direct monsoon water, large dams to contain and direct water, development of natural groundwater containment and crop irrigation channels to construction of 50,000 gallon wells. The results of our volunteer efforts are readily visible one year after the construction when new crops of wheat, barley, corn and other vegetables, along with new fruit trees, are growing where nothing has grown for years. Farmers are also now able to grow two crops per year instead of one, which enables them to both provide for their families and make an increased income by selling their produce.
Volunteer Experience Schedule INDIA
