While in Kenya this August, one of our main goals was to test our monitoring devices on boreholes that are already installed and operational. We wanted to evaluate cell signal strength and work with our partners on the ground to determine the best installation methods.
Michael, Francis, and the team herded us onto a bus and we drove an hour out of Kisumu to several neighboring villages that had recently received clean water. After two days of leadership trainings, we were eager to see their work in action. Along the road, many children carried jerry cans and fetched water from dirty streams and stagnant ponds, somehow balancing the heavy containers on bicycles as they made their way back to their villages. It was heartbreaking yet hopeful, knowing that many of these same communities would soon receive clean water.
We pulled into a dry little village with mud huts scattered throughout. The ground was pale and cracked. Yet in the middle stood a shiny new borehole with people gathered around it. What an amazing thing to see water being drawn from deep beneath such a dry area.
It was in this village we met Violet. Her life had changed in an incredible way since the coming of clean water.
Violet’s village received clean water through a new borehole earlier this summer. It is roughly 65 meters deep. We came to test our devices, but meeting her became the highlight of our visit.
After walking a mile and a half to the river where she used to fetch water, we saw the intense danger that once surrounded her daily routine. The stream ran between steep, jagged cliffs, and during the rainy season it became a rushing, churning river. Violet told us it was not uncommon for people, even children, to be swept away while trying to collect water.
Now, with the borehole just steps from her brightly colored home, Violet said she and her family can finally rest at night knowing the water they drink is clean and safe. She taught each of us how to carry water on our heads, and we followed her home with containers full of cold, clean water. Some were less full by the time we arrived. It kept splashing out the sides as we walked, since none of us had her balance. Her grin was infectious, and she’s proudly serving on the women’s maintenance committee that helps care for the well.
Water is life. Violet is living proof of that. By setting up a monthly donation today, you can directly help bring clean water to more people like Violet and her family. Thank you to everyone who makes stories like hers possible.
