Vital Boreholes In Ciamanda

We Challenge Our International Colleagues To Join Our Project At the Rotary Club Reunion in Beausoleil

At the Rotary Club Reunion in Beausoleil, Malcolm Acors made a powerful presentation of our Borehole Project in aid of St Francis Ciamanda Primary and Secondary Schools (See "Sun, Sea and Sexagenarians ..." report under "International Fellowship" elsewhere on this website.

The Borehole Project. 

Club member Rev Margaret Fowler went to Ciamanda, Kenya in late October, taking a Community Aquabox to provide clean drinking water immediately and funding authorisation so work could start immediately on building our first new borehole - in Ciamanda.  Margaret takes up the story:

Missions Completed - Excitement As We Go Forward in Kenya

"After ten years of travelling to Kenya as part of the Chelmsford Diocesan link with schools, I have never tired of making the long journey.  It is always exciting, although I am never completely sure of the programme till I get there - I just go with the flow.
I did, however, have three main objectives this time.  The first was to take the first steps in delivering a borehole to Ciamanda Primary School, funded by the Rotary Club of Billericay, the second to attend an Embu Rotary Club meeting after linking up with two Rotarians on my last trip in March, and the third objective was to attend the Consecration of St Paul’s Church in Ciamanda Parish.

My church, Christ Church Billericay, had been helping the community at Magaca to build their church and now, after 15 years, it was completed.  I had been invited to attend the consecration and so I ensured my visit coincided with the consecration date.

Water Filter

I had carried with me on my flight, as luggage, an Aquabox community water filter donated by the Rotary Club of Billericay.  I took this to the Embu Rotary Club meeting and explained to them what it was.  The filter was subsequently delivered to a remote community at Gatama, NE Kenya, which is a very dry area, by Rev. Maxwell Mombasa (with whom we had stayed).

Embu Rotary Club meet at the Izaak Walton hotel.  When I got there, it was interesting to see the familiar Rotary items on the table in front of President Paul Kiragu,  “Rotary and Peace the world over” I thought!

Warmly welcomed, we exchanged club pennants.  I had only 15 minutes to prepare to speak on being a priest and a Rotarian - but that’s Kenya and you just do it!  The following day I discovered that a poster invitation to the meeting with my photograph on it had been put on Facebook.

My Borehole Brief

I was given a polite hearing to my presentation.  We invited them, the Rotary Club of Embu, to join with the Rotary Club of Billericay and five other European Rotary Clubs to fund more boreholes in the area around Ciamanda so they could become water secure.  A most successful presentation because on my return to the UK, Rotarian Ruth Ndwiga emailed me to say: 

“...We have confirmed that we shall partner with your club on this project.  Kindly share that with your members.  We look forward to this partnership and thank you for giving us the challenge to do this.  Ruth.”

As a footnote to this, we were at the Izaak Walton hotel a few days later when a Dutch couple arrived for lunch. They recognised me from the Rotary Club Facebook poster!  They had recently moved to Kenya and said they were interested in joining Rotary.

Mudholes & Consecration

The rainy season and it rained very hard every night and sometimes during the day too.  I had never seen rain like it.  The main road through Embu is tarmac, but once you leave that in the rainy season you’re in very different territory!

The mud roads have deep, deep ruts and you slide on the mud just as you might on an icy road.  We got stuck one day after a pastoral visit, but kind people appeared out of the bush to help us get going again.

So we prayed that on the day of Consecration of St Paul’s Church the rain would stay away and it did! 

This was a special moment. It gave me the opportunity to show Bishop David the Rotary Club of Billericay proposal for the borehole project. He was very moved that we cared so much about this little community at Ciamanda.

More updates on the Borehole Project in future reports.  On completion, our Club will report on achievements, differences made, and actual cost, so that our international Rotary Club friends will fund the boreholes for neighbouring schools.