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This is Us...
...trying to give back a little. Long story short, we are a group of friends, the dearest kind, we took a trip this past July in Kishushe, Kenya. We visited as a group of volunteers with Action Aid Hellas, to participate in a water project. Together with the people there we completed a water well in the village of Paranga.
We thought that we would be offering ourselves to the people there, offering our help, our charity (!). We thought so... but now, we 're finding ourselves few months past the trip and we can't get over them, over all that they taught us, over their warm hearts, their families, their lives.
Hence, this is us, trying to give back a little, through this project.
What Project ?
THE WATER PROJECT !
Rain Harvesting? That's the one.
In Marafa...
A few words to get started :
Once we left Kishushe, word was out, and a group of locals in Marafa, wanted to somehow solve their water shortage problem.
Marafa has barely any financial activity. Combined with the lack of water in the area, it makes it no place to live in.
The distances to reach schools are significant and the teachers are few. The shortage of provisions has led to the students to steadily dismiss from school. Effectively resulting in girls quitting school for example and marrying at a very young age, as early as their 12 years !!!
The main causes of poverty at Marafa province are the low level of education as well as the lack of natural resources, whereas the periodical rainfalls they have increased the levels of poverty.
Wait...What ?!
Short and sweet :
Though the area is highly dry, heavy rains occur 3-4 times a year. HEAVY! and the locals are in no position to collect it, so we thought, that's a waste! Given the fact that the soil does not allow any water drilling, the suggestion was to build two big
water tanks.
Why is this project important ?
The schools have access to no other source of clean water for the children, thus the children need to carry water from home. At home however, no one guarantees the availability of clean water, and even a few children whose homes do have tha luxury (!) get to carry the water in any sort of bottle, such as ex-cleansers, that form the perfect means of contamination.
Lack of water has leads schools to be insufficient in terms of nutrition and hygiene, which leads to regular illnesses, those that can be transmitted through water, such as typhus and cholera.
Who will benefit from the project ?
This project gives 2 schools in Mikuyuni and Zhongani access to clean water. This translates to 600 students (specifically 282 girls and 318 boys)!
BUT, in a whole, this project addresses to all 3.000 people living in the community!
The schools that will participate in the making of the project and the kindergarden and primary schools, bringing the water closer to the younger ages, ones more difficult to travel to find water. Given the fact that secondary schools are 10km further away in the area, such construction eliminates travel for the younger children.
OK, great! So, what are we building ?
We are building 2 rain harvesting systems. 2 tanks of 10,000 Lt, with the right pipe and valve work work, bringing drinking water to the schools and the community.
We are training the children on how to ulitise and maintain the construction.
We teach the children the basics of personal hygiene.
We shall record and keep track of the effect of the project on everyday lives. Action Aid, together with the help of the locals, will then have the change to create discussion groups in different areas, in order for them to be informed and possibly benefit from any similar project they will want to take on.
The entrire project and construction will last for about 8 months and will cost about €5.034,30.
Lets sum up...
We want to place to (safe!) water tanks on the roofs of 2 schoosl , so that they will be able to collect rainwater, which will be then filtered into clean, drinking water, stored in the tanks !
You, our contributors!
You should be excited for forming part of out team. For each and every one of us, this trip was a unique experience and you are about to make one more happen. You are able to contact anyone of us (we are about 30 people!) and we can guarantee you that this entire project gives you so much joy once achieved, that words cannot describe.
Rest assured that we are in position of giving you individually much more details on the construction, as well as other success stories on similar projects!
Other Ways You Can Help
It is perfectly understandable that one may not be in position to contribute via donation.
Remember a Facebook post, a Tweet, a blog mention, they all go a long way, and we are all equally grateful for this enormous help of spreading the word!
