Provide clean water for Akili Girls School, Kenya

Hello Friends,

It has been exciting and challenging few months at Akili Preparatory School for Girls. With your support we were able to pay for drilling of a permanent well at Akili School In Obambo village. Unfortunately, the drilling did not yield sufficient quantities of water at the 100 meters depth that the geosurveyor recommended. Having failed to strike the water, we conducted a 2nd geological survey on a different spot in the compound and drilled another 100 meters to no avail. We were very disappointed to lose $12,000 because we are in dire need of water both for use at the school and for the community members who are walking long distances to fetch water from nearby shallow streams and wells. With no permanent source of clean water at our boarding school, there are higher chances of our girls using contaminated water and getting sick.

Because of your incredible support and generosity that saw us raise over $1800 from 37 different donors, we earned a permanent spot on GlobalGiving Org platform. This came at the right time because a few weeks after failing to strike water, we received $17,000 in grant from GlobalGiving Org!! At this time, our girls were already in school and the only water we had was 15,000 litres in our water tanks that  was running out. We were torn between drilling at a 3rd spot and building water tanks at the school. Afraid to drill and miss water for the 3rd time, we decided to construct underground water tanks to solve the immediate water problem at the school.

We are happy to report that we have successfully installed water tanks with  capacity of 40,000 litres at the school. When added to the 15,000 surface tanks that we have, our total water capacity is 55,000 litres, enough to last us an entire school term. All this water is harvested from the roofs of our classroom and dormitory blocks when it rains. Because of this, we have been able to keep 26 girls at our boarding school. They use the clean water for drinking, washing their utensils and uniforms, cooking at the school kitchen, bathing and cleaning the classrooms.

In the meantime, we are going to hire 3 different experts to conduct a thorough hydrogeological survey to find out if we can successfully drill and strike water at different spot on the school compound. If yes, we will raise funds and attempt to drill again as drilling will provide a permanent solution to the water problem in this community.

Our plan now is to construct bathrooms for our girls to shower. Currently, the girls are bathing in an open space that is behind the kitchen on the school campus. Over the year, girls have reported that they sometimes see men from the village hiding in nearby bushes to watch them bathe. It is our priority right now to provide the girls with a private, safe, and clean space to shower. With the construction of new showers, leftover water can be filtrated and used to water Akili’s 300 fruit trees and flush eco-toilets. We have to be especially careful not to waste the 15,000 liters used monthly. The showers and filtration system will create both a safer environment for students and work toward conservation. The fruit tree program will be used to provide nutrition to the students and will be an income-generating initiative for the school. Selling fruit to the local community will provide a sustainable way of making money for the school. Business and farming practices, along with environmental lessons, will also be taught to the students to increase learning. The rainy season is allowing the trees to flourish right now, but more water will be needed to care for them moving forward.

We want to sincerely thank you for your continued support and for helping provide safe water to keep our girls in School. It is an honor to partner with incredible people like you to support the education of underprivileged girls.

Thank you!

“It is so warm here! I have never slept in such a nice place before! We really love it here, teacher!” are some of the reactions of the Akili girls when they joined the new boarding school on the 5^th of February 2016. They kept talking for the better part of the night, too excited to sleep.

 One parent couldn’t hide his joy at the thought of her daughter Faith joining the boarding school. He has 2 teenage girls who have both fallen prey to the men in the slum who have made them pregnant, almost making them to drop out of school. “I was getting worried of how I was going to raise Faith in a day school in Obunga. Thank you for building this boarding school. I am confident she will succeed because of this school,” he said.

 It has been our joy to partner with you all to build this boarding school for the underprivileged girls of Obunga slum and Obambo Community. How beautiful it has been to see volunteers from all over the world pull together to help our cause! It is making all the difference and we are optimistic that by giving these girls a platform to dream and be who they want to be in life, they will ultimately achieve their visions and be important people in the community.

 We were privileged to work with our global advocate Rachael from Australia, her parents and a group of 14 volunteers from Life Point Church, AZ, USA who worked tirelessly painting classrooms and dormitory walls, building 4 preschool classrooms in Obunga, a school kitchen, latrines and buying chicken for our poultry project in Obambo. We also enjoyed working with 4 volunteers from Red Cross University Sweden for 3 weeks in February. They empowered our girls and teachers through sessions on UN Convention on Women rights, HIV/AIDS, Rape, and Self Esteem among others.

 Through your generous donations of $1,769 on this platform, $250 from the JDC Trust USA, $10,000 from Deeper Missions Org USA and $4000 from Trish and Greg Yoccum of the Life Point Church, USA, we are acquiring a permit from Water Resources Management Authority to drill a permanent well at the Akili Girls School by the 4^th of March 2016. Our target is to reach $18,000 so that we can both drill the well and purchase a pump to supply the water to various points of use including bathrooms/showers, kitchen and the toilets. We have $2000 to go.

This being a community where water is scarce with women and children having to walk for as far as 2km to fetch dirty water from shallow ponds and seasonal streams, we are looking forward to setting up a water kiosk where we would sell access to water at affordable fee to the community. The community water point/tank we plan to build will ensure that the community can get affordable water which is clean and reduce the time they spend walking or cycling to the present water points as well as reduce incidences of water borne diseases.

We deeply value your commitment to stand with us to ensure that our girls get the quality education that they need to break free the cycle of poverty and change our community. Asante Sana!