Embu -  Borwells Status and
Graduation Success

Margaret Fowler reports:

The purpose of my visit to Kenya this time was to visit the schools where the borewells we had built in the past couple of years were not working properly, and to discover how much it would cost to get them functioning again.  I travelled with a member of my Church, Bill Howard, who also visited Embu in March last year. Bill is an engineer and had agreed to do a report for the Rotary Club of Billericay on our findings.

Borewell Analysis

In summary the report proposes:

• A spare pump be purchased to protect supply while any faulty pump is being repaired.
• Monitor above-ground pipes for degradation
• Pumps are not protected from running dry which may have caused premature failures.  Install a simple float switch at each pump to isolate power in the event of low water levels.
• Ciamanda, Magaca, Nyagari, Kathangari and Ndumari School wells run dry in the dry season, and need to be deepened which means excavation through very hard rock.  Take advice from Embu university and use mechanical digging to penetrate this rock.
• Fix leaking joint at Ciamanda (cut out and replace)
• Replace broken water station at Ndumari

Unfortunately, the Rotary Club of Embu were not meeting the week we visited as they had held a large fund-raising event the previous Saturday so cancelled their mid-week meeting.

However, I was able to meet up with Nelly Kiragu who is Director, Family of Rotary. I had met Nelly on several occasions on previous trips. I was able to ask her to help us to take the borewell repairs forward.  

Success at ENA

We visited Ena Primary School which was the recipient of one of the Rotary sponsored borewells. We were amazed at the extent of the farming that has taken place because of the regular water supply.

The pupils plant and tend what must be at least two acres of crops which make the school food sustainable. They have also planted hundreds of trees - bananas, macadamias, and trees for wood. This would have been impossible before the borewell was built, as the only water was a river a long way from the school.

Student Sponsorship Success

After Church on Sunday, I was delighted to see Janet Mukami and Moses Macharia waiting outside to see us. Janet graduated from University last December after being sponsored for 8 years by people at Christ Church Billericay through senior school and University.  Moses is in his second year at Uni and came to meet Bill and I, to say thank you for our sponsorship. He told us his laptop was stolen after he left it unattended for a few minutes, but he has been managing to continue his studies by working from his phone. 

The highlight of our trip was an 8 hours trip across the Rift Valley to Kenya Highlands University for the Graduation of Martin Mugendi, another sponsored student, who is the first in his family community of goatherders to go to University.  It was a very emotional day, especially meeting his family, 16 of whom travelled in a mini bus in which they stayed overnight on the campus so they could be at the Graduation. The Graduation celebrations were nothing like we had ever seen before. There was singing and traditional dancing for hours afterwards.

We had a meal with the family in a restaurant afterwards when almost everyone gave a speech of congratulation and offered their gratitude to Christ Church for sponsoring Martin.  He already has a teaching post.

This was a very humbling part of our trip, seeing what a difference a few hundred pounds a year had made to this bright young man who would otherwise not have had the opportunity for higher education. His aunt told us how the family cried when they realised they could not afford to send Martin to senior school.  They took him to see Rev Maxwell Mombasa, who got in touch with Christ Church and we obtained the sponsorship which Martin needed. 

Education sponsorship, which the Rotary Club of Billericay is now taking part in, is such an amazing way of changing the life of a child but also it can change the life for his or her community. Other young people in Martin’s village now have hope that if they work hard they can achieve educational success. Martin said in his speech to his family that he wants to give back to another young person one day.  What more can we ask for?