Water Well Project for Kajiado
Tax deductible
Our story:
My name is Isaac Kuria. I am the Founder of Myles of Great Hopes, a certified charity built out of a diverse group of individuals who have come together to make life better for people in need. My passion is to be a voice for these people and meet their basic resource needs.
I was born and lived in Kenya for the first 23 years of my life before relocating to the US in 2000. I grew up watching my mum care passionately for the other villagers and, every other evening, give out free maize flour from her posho mill business and milk to families in need. I first came to the US in 1997 with the YMCA International Camp Counseling Program exchange program "Camp Seafarer" in Arapahoe, NC. For the next three years, I returned each summer before moving here to attend college and eventually start a family. After my first son, Myles was born, I saw the need and challenge of taking care of a small child and my mind and heart ached for the poor families in rural Kenya. At our house we spent a lot of water keeping things clean and washing clothes for the baby, and I knew that many newborns in areas of Kenya with water hardships did not have the luxuries of our son. Memories of the great love of my mum, and the empowering experience of using one's own abilities and willpower to positively impact someone's life that I had had with the YMCA urged me to do something for these children. It was a calling.
I am well travelled in Kenya and Kajiado County is one of the places that receive very minimal rainfall. I had visited there many times because my older sister has been an educator at a high school there for a long time. I had personally seen the struggles with the lack of water in the community. My sister directed me towards the Ilbissil Township Primary School in particular because she had seen children consume from puddles of stagnant water on the school compound after short rains. We analyzed the needs level and met with the school committee. Because the school is a public institution, has a student population of over 900, and is close to a town of more than 3,500 residents, the beneficiaries of a well built here will be many.
We have already succeeded in donating to them a 10k water tank. Just last year – 2014, during a 2 kilometers Myles of Great Hopes Walk for Water we raised enough to install pipes to get municipal water from the town. Unfortunately, there is simply not enough rain there to have water reserved in the tank, and the scarce amount of water from the pipes is only pumped about once or twice a week. We have utilized all of these other possible means to bring water to these children and this community but the real, permanent solution is to have the well dug.
Water affects much more than the obvious and indispensable hydration and cleaning. These in turn affect the health of these children, which also impacts their education by enabling or preventing them from attending school.
Our main partners in this project, the Global Outreach Group at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Raleigh, NC, have sponsored the hydrogeological survey. We have a report from the Kenyan government ministry of water resources for an approved and capable drilling company. The final catalyst for this project is raising the funds.
This is where you, the public, come in.
You can be a part of radically changing the lives of these school children for the better by simply donating less than 5 minutes of your time and a few dollars. Every $14 digs another foot of this well, and every cent is a deeply appreciated gesture of care and hope. How much do you hope for a world where no human being has to go without water?
My name is Isaac Kuria. I am the Founder of Myles of Great Hopes, a certified charity built out of a diverse group of individuals who have come together to make life better for people in need. My passion is to be a voice for these people and meet their basic resource needs.
I was born and lived in Kenya for the first 23 years of my life before relocating to the US in 2000. I grew up watching my mum care passionately for the other villagers and, every other evening, give out free maize flour from her posho mill business and milk to families in need. I first came to the US in 1997 with the YMCA International Camp Counseling Program exchange program "Camp Seafarer" in Arapahoe, NC. For the next three years, I returned each summer before moving here to attend college and eventually start a family. After my first son, Myles was born, I saw the need and challenge of taking care of a small child and my mind and heart ached for the poor families in rural Kenya. At our house we spent a lot of water keeping things clean and washing clothes for the baby, and I knew that many newborns in areas of Kenya with water hardships did not have the luxuries of our son. Memories of the great love of my mum, and the empowering experience of using one's own abilities and willpower to positively impact someone's life that I had had with the YMCA urged me to do something for these children. It was a calling.
I am well travelled in Kenya and Kajiado County is one of the places that receive very minimal rainfall. I had visited there many times because my older sister has been an educator at a high school there for a long time. I had personally seen the struggles with the lack of water in the community. My sister directed me towards the Ilbissil Township Primary School in particular because she had seen children consume from puddles of stagnant water on the school compound after short rains. We analyzed the needs level and met with the school committee. Because the school is a public institution, has a student population of over 900, and is close to a town of more than 3,500 residents, the beneficiaries of a well built here will be many.
We have already succeeded in donating to them a 10k water tank. Just last year – 2014, during a 2 kilometers Myles of Great Hopes Walk for Water we raised enough to install pipes to get municipal water from the town. Unfortunately, there is simply not enough rain there to have water reserved in the tank, and the scarce amount of water from the pipes is only pumped about once or twice a week. We have utilized all of these other possible means to bring water to these children and this community but the real, permanent solution is to have the well dug.
Water affects much more than the obvious and indispensable hydration and cleaning. These in turn affect the health of these children, which also impacts their education by enabling or preventing them from attending school.
Our main partners in this project, the Global Outreach Group at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Raleigh, NC, have sponsored the hydrogeological survey. We have a report from the Kenyan government ministry of water resources for an approved and capable drilling company. The final catalyst for this project is raising the funds.
This is where you, the public, come in.
You can be a part of radically changing the lives of these school children for the better by simply donating less than 5 minutes of your time and a few dollars. Every $14 digs another foot of this well, and every cent is a deeply appreciated gesture of care and hope. How much do you hope for a world where no human being has to go without water?
Organizer
Isaac Kuria
Organizer
Cary, NC
MYLES OF GREAT HOPES
Registered nonprofit
Donations are typically 100% tax deductible in the US.
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