Water, water, water, another thing we take for granted

 On Wednesday, I told you a little about the community center we hope to establish to help the Maasai villagers living near the town of Ololaimutiek in Kenya. One of the daily struggles these people have is obtaining enough water for drinking, cooking, and bathing.

Here in America, we take it for granted that all we need to do to have fresh water is to turn on the facet. That is not the case in much of the world.

Along with all their other household tasks, the women are responsible for collecting the water supply for the family. They walk about a mile to get to the nearby river and it takes about an hour every day to bring enough water into their home to last a day.

We were there during the rainy season. You can tell by all the recent erosion, yet it had previously been so dry that here you can’t really tell that they have had any rain. Imagine hauling a twenty to thirty pound jug of water up this bank and then carrying it home, a mile away?

The women also wash the family’s clothes in the river.

Further downstream, more water is flowing, but it is also the place where the men of the tribe graze their cattle and goats. You’d rather not drink water that livestock has been using, right?

On the  other end of the river, our partner organization, Marafiki Community, has tapped into a spring which provides constant clean water.

Izzo, the founder of Marafiki, holds up a bottle of clean water and one from the river. Again, because it is the rainy season, more water has been flowing through the river so it doesn’t look too bad here. During the dry season, though the river doesn’t dry up, the water in it looks more like mud.

Though the walk to retrieve this water is still about the same distance, at least the water is clean.

We are looking into ways for the women to easily bring a clean, unlimited water supply into their homes. 

If you would like to help, you can mail your tax-deductible donation to 

Tumaini Volunteers, PO Box 537, Wausau, WI  54402. 

Or click on this link to donate via PayPal. Any size donation will be appreciated.