Karibu! Welcome!

Since 2004, EWB@ MSU's professional and student volunteers have worked with community members in Khwisero, Kenya to provide water and sanitation infrastructure at the district's 58 primary schools, making it easier for Khwisero's children to avoid waterborne disease and get an education.

In that time, the group has grown from a small club to one of MSU's premier student organizations, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund seven borehole wells, six composting latrines and a biogas latrine that serve thousands of community members.

Thank you for joining us as we continue to work hand-in-hand with local partners to make a difference in one small part of our world. As Western Kenya's limited internet access allows, we will update this blog while in-country with the successes, stories and lessons provided by our work.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

So Far So Good

Team 1 has been making progress on a daily basis.

The meeting with all head masters was conducted as scheduled, and for the first time EWB at MSU was introduced to the head masters of the entire Khwisero division all at once. The application process was outlined and a selection committee based in the school board was proposed. The purpose of the committee would be to assist schools in the completion of the application and select a short list of schools for most immediate future work. This committee would allow for a transparent local process to recommend schools based on the school's applications and written proposals.

The schools outline what they want related to water and sanitation from EWB at MSU. For example: a bore hole, a water dist system, toilets ect. Most importantly, they propose how they will manage and what they will do with the water to bring funds into the school. The application allows several schools to team up and apply for systems where one school gets water and pipes it to the others. The proposal will include how they will route the water, how the water will be metered, and at what cost they will distribute, ect. Another section of the application includes how the community hope to assist.

Teams 2 and 3 will be continuing the process by meeting with the committees that the schools set up to fill out the applications. This will happen at two meetings. One for East Khwisero and one for West Khwisero.

Good progress has been made with the survey preparations. The schools will have no problem providing labor; it is sounding like many will do it for free. Adam and Annie have been finalizing a simple way to find the effective radii of schools.

The design of the latrine has taken a turn for the complicated as Team 1 attempts to introduce a bio-gas component per the request of Ronald. Chris, Griffin, Jon, and Maurice are modifying a German design that Ronald helped to implement in the slums of Nairobi. They have been communicating regularly with Teams 2 and 3 and professors and professionals at MSU to discuss the proposed design. It should be good and the school is stoked.

The contracting and permitting process for the bore holes is essentially complete. We will post expected arrival times for the drill rig soon.

Khwisero now has a movie house that shows DVDs. The Water Carriers coming soon!

Team 2 arrives in Kenya next week. Check back soon for more updates.

Posted by Quinn at 12:40 PM

1 comment:

Amos Andalia said...

it is encouraging that you have gone this far to help our people access clean and safe water. though this is new to me despite being a resident of that area, am impressed. kudos.

May 20, 2010 at 5:23 AM

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