Hope and Kindnes - Water Projects

Links to our Projects

Education
Self Sufficient School
Water
Sanitation
Community
Farming

The big blue picture opposite says it all - water is life.

Kosele is about 7 kilometres from Lake Victoria yet the majority of our neighbours do not have access to clean, safe water. Consequently water borne sicknesses - typhoid and diarrhea in particular - are rife.

We have had a borehole at Hope and Kindness since June 2009. Without it our work would no longer be possible. Every year, since we first started, we have steadily increased the number of children who attend our school. Providing them all with enough safe water to drink and cooking 170 breakfasts and lunches every school day would have pushed our previous source of water (see story below) beyond its limits.

We are lucky. At the moment our neighbours aren't so fortunate.

The story of our borehole

Our first water delivery. It took 2 hours to off load the water into our tank the first time we did it. We relied on the tractor to deliver water for 7 years!	Once off loaded the water had to be filtered before we could use it for drinking or cooking. These filters were white when first installed!	We used the water from the bowser for cooking and drinking. We came to rely on 2 deliveries of water a week to keep up with the school feeding program.	We also needed water for washing the children and their clothes. We didn't always need to use water from the bowser for this (clue in picture!)

You guessed. When it rains in Kenya it really rains. The only problem is that it's not very reliable. This causes problems for farmers as well.	Our rain harvest system was very effective. During the short and long rains we used the rain we harvested from our roof tops for all of the washing activities.	When it didn't rain we had to send the children to the spring to collect water. They then had to carry it back and treat it with chemicals to make it drinkable.	Fortunately the children did not have to drink this stuff very often. Our neighbours do. It's no wonder that water borne diseases are such a problem.

And then ..... in June 2009 we were finally able to drill a bore hole. Friends in Bewdley and Norfolk raised the £13,000 we needed for this vital resource.	It was like drilling for oil - and just as impressive when we struck water. The drilling rig had to come from Nairobi. The borehole is 90 metres deep.	The quality of water is excellent. We just pump it from the borehole straight into our tank. It is truly amazing having clean water on demand.	We still filter the water, (just to be on the safe side). Our borehole means that we are now able to feed many more children and grow more crops.
Helping the community We could not keep a blessing like the borehole to ourselves. We have been able to help our elderly neighbours by taking water to them. The children regularly take water supplies out to the community.
	We are able to help the community in other ways with water projects. Driving from Kosele to Kisumu, (a 90 minute journey), Terry noticed that very few houses had guttering attached to the roof to make a roof harvest possible. A roof harvest system is one of the simplest things in the world - a length of guttering, a down pipe and a plastic water storage tank. A scheme was hatched to help our neighbours to gather a roof harvest. With the assistance of our friends Annie, Liz and Val from Bewdley we were able to raise funds to supply the neccesary plumbing to build simple roof harvest systems for our neighbours. In the last 12 months we have set up 20 of these systems and we are planning to erect 20 more in the next few months. We will be training a team of young people to erect these systems and to monitor progress as the project is rolled out on a larger scale. These roof harvest systems will be an important part of the sustainable farming project we are starting as part of our Rural Training Program.
How you can help Our neighbours in Kosele need your help to bring them clean, safe water. We would like to install many more roof harvesting systems like the one shown above. A system like this can be built for £50. Another £20 will buy tools and seed to help a family to farm more effectively. We would also like to drill more boreholes in our community. Properly managed, a borehole can provide water for irrigation as well as for drinking. A borehole brings the gift of life to a whole community by improving health and food security.
To give to our water projects click on the Donate button below and indicate which project you would like to give to. We will post regular progress reports on the website.