The first post in this series described the Student Movement for Real Change (SMRC), a national non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. that is helping to empower young people to make global change where it is most needed. This post focuses in on the largest and most daunting project that SMRC has undertaken, the Kenya Water Project. Despite barriers such as federal regulations and a the need for a high-six-figure budget standing in the way, a few young people are managing to make a real difference in the lives of over 35,000 people in rural Kenya. This is how:
Lily Muldoon, then a Pomona College (California) student, co-founded a chapter of the Student Movement for Real Change in 2003. Pulling together friends and peers, she began to fundraise for SMRC projects such as the Mashlati Primary School in Kenya. With local events at the college and in the surrounding community, she began to gain experience with community organizing and small-scale fundraising. This experience could not have adequately prepared her, however, for the task that lay ahead.
Having spent a significant amount of her free time mobilizing members of the Pomona College community to take action against poverty in Africa, Lily decided to spend a semester abroad in Kenya to experience it firsthand. Before leaving in the Spring of 2006, she read a newspaper article about the massive drought in Eastern Africa, which was particularly potent in Kenya. She approached Saul Garlick, the founder and head of SMRC who I wrote about in my previous post, and suggested that the next big SMRC endeavor should be a water project in Kenya. Saul agreed, and, with little sense of what that might entail, Lily left for Africa. While in Kenya, Lily traveled up and down the coast searching for a community that was both in need of water and would be receptive to outside support. Upon reaching Kayafungo, a community of 35,000 residents located Southeast Kenya, Lily knew she had found the right place.
In Kayafungo, villagers showed Lily the Waa dam, the community's main water source. Teeming with visible, living organisms, the water was stagnant and colored deep brown. Women were taking water from the dam to carry back to their homes. Lily discovered that these women had walked for over an hour in each direction just for a single bucket of this unclean liquid. In addition, community members did not have the resources to boil or chemically treat the water before drinking. Not only were waterborne diseases and fatal diarrhea rampant in Kayafungo, but the distance from the village to the nearest water source had much more far-reaching implications. Schools were forced to close early so that students could walk to the dam each day, there was less time to tend to other community needs, and daily life revolved around rationing the available water. In short, residents of Kayafungo were plagued every day by a lack of clean, nearby water.
The Chief of the village showed Lily a community-developed proposal to divert part of an existing pipeline over towards Kayafungo. The new pipeline would bring clean water to within a short walk of residents' homes and would alleviate the disastrous direct and indirect effects of water scarcity. The Kayafungo community knew the problem and designed the solution, but lacked the resources and money to implement their plan. Then and there, Lily committed to the project.
SMRC, and Lily Muldoon, have committed to building a 28km pipeline (about 17.4 mi). They have another youth, Daniel Teweles, on the ground in Kenya who will serve as project coordinator, and Lily will move back to Kayafungo to direct the project in February. But they are not alone; SMRC members from across the country are raising money, writing grants, and teaching people about the Water Project. In addition, Lily and her fellow project planners are taking pains to implement the best practices of developing country water projects, something that many large-scale projects ignore. A large part of this is improving the sanitation infrastructure and behavior in the community. What's the point of clean water if sanitation is poor anyway? To this end, SMRC has plans to complete construction of latrines at local schools, health and hygiene workshops in the community, and capacity building meetings with local citizens, all before the first pipe is laid. Then, starting in summer 2008, construction will begin, and will have three phases:
- Spring 2008 – Health and hygiene workshops and community capacity building.
- Summer-Fall 2008 – Phase 1 construction of pipeline (10km).
- Winter-Spring 2008 – Phase 2 construction of pipeline (9km).
- Summer-Fall 2009 – Phase 3 construction of pipeline (9km).
In short, here is what has been accomplished: a tiny group of college students and recent graduates, led by Lily Muldoon and Saul Garlick, have led the charge to design a large-scale water project in rural Kenya. When completed, 8 schools and over 35,000 people will gain access to clean water. They will have improved sanitation practices, fewer instances of waterborne disease, and longer school days. So how have they come so far? There have certainly been bumps in the road. Lily originally estimated the total project cost to be $50,000, but upon returning to Kenya discovered that the true cost would be closer to $650,000. Her response: "I called Saul from an old telephone in Mombasa and told him about the newly estimated cost. Without hesitation he told me that we could raise the money if that is what it would take. We believe college students have the power to make lasting change and we can inspire them to do it."
SMRC is still raising funds for the Kenya Water Project. Most notably, they've begun a "12 12 12 Campaign," which seeks to get $12 for $12 months from individuals, who then ask 12 friends to do the same. If you would like to join or contribute, please visit http://www.studentmovementusa.org/.
Look out for the next article in this series, which will cover how SMRC members are measuring the effects of their project, and how this project can be used as a model for future water interventions.
Further Reading:
