The House that Rotary Helped Build

Club Member Margaret Fowler reports:

After 11 years of visiting Kenya for a schools/church link I am now in regular contact with many teachers in the County of Embu.  One of the teachers, Purity Mugo, contacted me a few months ago to tell me about a poor mother whose house had fallen down and asked if there was any way I could help financially to build her a new house.

I put a photograph of the collapsed house on social media asking friends to spare a thought for this poor lady, Mama Muriithi, who had four children and was in despair.  Almost immediately friends began to respond with offers of donations.

Purity started a WhatsApp group among her teacher colleagues who also began to make donations and offered to help with the build.  Purity was very accountable and sent all donors a daily log of donations received and how the money was being spent on materials.

Heavy Cement Bags

The house was a long way from a road so the teachers had to carry the materials through the forest.  The most difficult to transport were the bags of cement which were so heavy, but somehow they managed it and the house gradually began to take shape.

In Kenya, once boys reach the age of 11 yrs old they are no longer permitted to sleep in the family home and a separate shelter is built outside for them.  Mama Muriithi’s son had a shelter which was even more ramshackle than the house, and because sufficient funds were donated the teachers were also able to build the son a new shelter. 

A new toilet was also constructed for the family, and there were even enough funds to purchase chickens and a goat which will help to feed the family in the future.

This was a real joint Kenya/UK project with as much being raised by friends in Billericay as by the teachers in Embu. 

Mama Muriithi and her children are very grateful for their new house and she asked Purity to send thanks to all those in Billericay who helped, despite never having met her.  

When the Build was complete

Purity wrote on completion of the build:  “The team is so grateful for your support.  Alone, we would have given up”