Posted in Kenya on January 3, 2018
Safeguarding water access for kids in Kenya
Our 2017 teams worked on a project to bring clean water to the Kirinyaga Primary School in the Naro Moru community. The rainwater collection tank provides clean drinking water for 315 students and is used by the school for cooking and washing. The school was selected by a committee of community members that do outreach to identify projects most needed.
The district of Naro Moru is made up of the town centre and six other villages within a 25 km area. Each of these villages has a similar water shortage and deforestation issues.
The people living there are among the poorest in the country. Currently, the demand for clean water is urgent. DWC Team Leader Brittany Pepper remarked, “It was a very drought-stricken area; lack of water was visibly obvious.”
Kenya is heavily reliant upon agriculture which is reliant upon rainwater. This dependency makes goals of improving water resources and reforestation even more important to the people of Naro Moru and the country as a whole.
Having access to clean water is a basic necessity that the school struggles to provide to the students who are challenged with hunger and personal hygiene needs on a daily basis. Many children attending the school have been orphaned by the AIDS epidemic or other fatal illnesses and live in abject poverty.
In some cases, children do not come to school at all because they have to go fetch water or farm.
Nderitu, from our in-country partner Access Kenya, expressed great appreciation for the hard work, effort, time and generosity offered by volunteers travelling halfway around the world to help this needy community. If you can believe it, the beneficiaries are 355 students and teachers! The work is already delivering measurable benefits.
Projects in schools are always in great demand. In 2018, a DWC project will include making a school lunch program sustainable by building a garden to feed the schoolchildren. Water harvested from the newly installed collection system will irrigate the field where the vegetable crops will be grown.
Posted in Kenya on January 3, 2018
