Kenya Midyear 2011 Update

Kenya is a country of diversity, challenges, hope, and constant change. In the 5 years that we have been working in Western Kenya we have made many friends and learned so many things about the local people, the government, and the environment. It is amazing how kind and gentle and happy people generally are. The families we serve not only appreciate that we are giving the children clean drinking water but they also come together as a community and help maintain the systems and then give us guidance on where to go next and even suggest needy widows in the regions that may need our help. Even in a culture that for generations has depended on hand outs, the people we meet are generous and caring and often looking out for the needs of others rather than themselves. While most people hope and pray that the government will satisfy the real needs of the people (food, water, education, health care) they also understand that this change will come but it will be slow. In the mean time people pull together and try to help each other. What an amazing place! We are thankful to be able to work with the rural people of Kenya and blessed that the government officials and church leaders have been so supportive of our mission projects.

During the last few years we have refined our project designs and project management practices and have been able to streamline each rain water project and improve both our system quality and our training. Working with the county mag

istrates and regional MPs we have improved our approach to school selection while also delivering more systems in less time. We have had similar improvements in responsiveness for our Cows for Life program where we provide cows to needy widows in the regions around where we work for water systems. Just this year we have provided 15 schools with new rain water collection systems. At the same time we have been blessed with kind donors that have allowed us to give 10 widows dairy cows so that they can now take care of themselves and their families and have a means of self supportive income.

But what is next? During the rest of this year we are continuing our efforts to improve the filtration systems that we use for the water as it e

xits the collection tanks and we are also further improving our installation process to minimize maintenance and repair issues that have been caused by violent storms or just poor material selections during installation. Every system we install gives us an opportunity to improve. We use all local craftsman for the fabrication and installation of the gutter and downspout systems. These men have continued to help improve things and as we provide them with better tools they provide us with better solutions. We have such a great team system in place.

In a similar fashion, the widows that have been blessed to receive cows over the past two years have banded together and now help teach those

that are just receiving a cow how to better care and feed the animal. We have developed two widows coops and will continue to help these ladies find new ways of funding the purchase of farm lands and we will continue to provide these groups with the seed funds and initial cows to help get them started as they seek to help each other and change the lives of the entire group.

In general, we use our talents and abilities and the methods available to us here to train and develop better solutions and better leaders in Kenya with each and every new water system or cow delivered. Sustainable, changing, growing self supportive projects that change lives! All because of the generous donations of people like yourself.

We look forward to reporting on our last group of schools and widows that we have provided help for soon. Check back for new pictures and new information. Life is good and getting better in Kenya!