Support a Maasai water project and emergency food

Please join us in funding a new water supply for a Maasai village in Kenya, and providing emergency food aid until it's operational in early 2023.

The rains have failed for two years, during the worst drought in a century in East Africa. Conditions are so extreme that cows, wildlife and even camels are dying. The photo above was taken in much better times.  https://bit.ly/droughtinKenya. 

Most Maasai families live on “group ranches” (essentially reservations), depending on livestock and some subsistence farming. Now, with their remaining animals too thin to sell, many Maasai lack income altogether and face hunger. Assistance is not expected from the Kenyan government or aid agencies. 

 

Until recently, at Selengei Group Ranch near Amboseli National Park, a deep borehole (well and pump) provided water for local people, cows, sheep and goats, and camels, plus some farming. But the borehole broke down in 2019, and the consulting engineers deem it irreparable. In the meantime, little girls are slogging kilometers a day to fill jerrycans at another water source. (See recent photo at bottom of this writeup.)

We're raising funds for Amboseli Maasai Development Outreach (AMDO), a registered community-based organization (CBO), or local non-profit, which will oversee the water project. AMDO's founder and leader is Leonard Onetu, a university graduate who has dedicated his life to helping his rural community. He has organized boreholes, including the old one; found school sponsorships for many local girls and boys; and developed a safari camp to employ adults. (Due to COVID, few guests have visited in the last couple of years.)

Your donations will help AMDO pay for: 

 

1) A new borehole and pipes to provide water for 120 households and their livestock going forward, and

 

2) Emergency food aid for the most vulnerable households in the interim.

 

Years ago, while I was working for international aid organizations in Kenya, I adopted a wonderful girl who was orphaned in Selengei. Today she lives in the U.S., but her birth family remains in the area. So I'm connected by adoptive family.

My daughter’s eldest brother, Leonard, has dedicated his life to community development and founded the CBO. Educated and a natural leader, he has organized boreholes; found school sponsorships for many local girls and boys; and developed a safari camp to employ local adults. Due to COVID, no guests have come to the camp in two years.

The new borehole will be dug about 135 deep, as per the geologist’s and engineer’s report, and operate with a solar-powered pump. A small fee for water will fund a borehole operator, plus maintenance.

In the meantime, representatives of the 120 households in the “neighborhood” determined that it takes about $250 to feed one household (5-6 people) for a month. The basic diet consists of maize beans, millet and maize flour, and oil. 

The early donations will go to emergency food aid for the most vulnerable households. So far Len has conducted one food distribution for 40 families. It’s time for another, which means more funds are needed as of the end of June.

I'll post updates on food relief as well as the borehole project. If you're interested, I'll send AMDO's proposals and budgets. 

Please give what you can. And it would be wonderful if you'd share with your networks as well. Something to feel good about!

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and for your willingness to share with hardworking people fallen on tremendously hard times. There but for the grace of God....