Mfangano Island: Community Water & Garden Project

Mfangano Island is located on the East side of Lake Victoria--the second largest fresh water lake in the world. Despite its location in the lake, the island receives far less rain than the nearby highlands of Kenya. Recently, drought has plagued the island, forcing farmers to irrigate crops to produce food. Fresh water is abundant here, but getting the water to the farms and gardens is labor-intensive, and access to clean drinking water is challenging.

The Principal of a local elementary school, Samuel Odoyo, has dedicated his time to improving life for the island's residents. He serves as the director of the Sagrema Foundation, which strives to help improve the health and well-being of the surrounding community through various projects including:

      Samuel at the Wakinga Community Health Clinic

The foundation is working on a new project to expand the utilization of the water filtration system and improve the effectiveness of the community gardens. When we visited the newly opened Wakinga Community Health Clinic we asked what the common ailments they saw were, and nearly all of them were preventable water-borne diseases.

Odoyo has invested in a water filtration system but still needs a pump controller, a connection to the Kenya Power transmission lines nearby, and a water filling station to get clean drinking water to their community.

Furthermore, the two community garden plots are only partially planted because manually hauling water to irrigate the crops is labor intensive. Despite efforts to water, large areas of the gardens are withering due to drought and heat. A pump, water storage tank, and irrigation pipes would go a long way to reduce the hours spent watering crops and significantly increase the farm's yield.

                   Withering Kale plants

The funds raised will support the following projects:

        Washing dishes in Lake Victoria

A neighboring farm is a successful example of a pump + tank + irrigation system implementation 

The residents on the East side of Mfangano island will be so grateful to have clean drinking water to consume, healthier families, and more food on their tables. Providing easily accessible clean drinking water will reduce disease transmission and increase the time kids spend in school instead of helping haul water. It also will allow mothers and fathers more time to work and make a living instead of focusing much of their time on hauling water from the lake.

           Boys hauling water from the lake to their school

To learn more about the Sagrema foundation, visit their website: Sagrema Foundation

If you want to learn more about the community and our involvement with them, check out our blog! https://strandedtogether.com