Kenya Water Wells - Expectations Exceeded

The Rotary Club of Billericay has had links to the Ciamanda Primary School (Head Teacher Lucy Mbogo) in Embu County, Kenya since 2018 when we funded renovation of Nursery Classrooms in the school.  Ciamanda is approximately 3 hours drive north-east of Nairobi in the foothills of Mount Kenya.

Since 2019, the water supply in Embu, Kenya has been intermittent and unreliable due to lack of rain, and as a result, crops are failing, and hygiene suffering.  Lucy, in her role as Chairman of the local Headteachers Association for Embu and Secretary for the Mount Kenya Region identified the need for a reliable source of clean water for the school children and to support the school’s feeding program.

Pilot Potential

The Rotary Club of Billericay funded a pilot well in Lucy’s school at Ciamanda, and raised money to fund a total of six wells at Ciamanda and neighbouring schools in Embu.

The pilot was a complete success, being completed in the 2019 Christmas break for only $3,000.  The Rotary Club of Billericay then obtained a Rotary District Grant of £3,000 and a commitment of over $6,000 from the five other European Rotary Clubs with which we have links in our “Double Triangular” Group.  With the help of a crowdfunding campaign via GlobalGiving, we sought to raise the balance of $18,000 to fund a six borewells in six Primary Schools.

We partnered with the Rotary Club of Embu.  It formed a project committee with Mrs Mbogo to provide vital local planning, management and financial controls on the ground in Kenya to see the wells built and the project completed.

Ten Wells Not Just Six

The Crowdfunding was such a success, that, with the addition of a further small Rotary District Grant of £2,500, we raised a total of over $30,000.  This funded not only the original six wells, but also an extra and additional four wells.

TEN WELLS IN TOTAL

Thanks to this project ten primary schools in Embu County, Kenya all have fresh, clean flowing water all day long and all year round, for drinking, watering their crops, cooking food, cleaning their School, washing & general hygiene. International co-operation between Rotary Clubs and via Crowdfunding really does deliver the goods!