ROTARY DESIGNATES DUNCAN A "PAUL HARRIS FELLOW"

Because of his dedication and commitment to various Rotary projects in Ndandini and Kyaithani, Kenya, successfully completed over the past three years the Rotary Club of the Sunshine Coast (Sechelt BC Canada) has awarded Duncan Kamau the prestigious Paul Harris Fellow recognition.

Duncan has been our project manager responsible for all on-site management of our Rotary matching grants and TRF Global Grants at Ndandini and Kyaithani.

By reading all the posts on this blogspot, you will understand why he deserves this recognition.

Below is the content of the presentation made to Duncan on 30 October 2011.

Well done Duncan!

Terry

             Paul Harris Fellow Presentation 

                             To 

              Duncan Kamau Ngochi 

                     Oct 30, 2011 

The presentation of Paul Harris Fellow recognition is The Rotary Foundation's way of expressing its appreciation for a substantial contribution to Rotary’s humanitarian and educational programs. 

The Paul Harris Fellowship is named for Paul Harris, who founded Rotary over 100 years ago.  The Fellowship was established in his honor in 1957 to express appreciation and recognition for a contribution of US $1000 to The Rotary Foundation.    A Paul Harris Fellow is an individual who contributes $1,000 US or in whose name that amount is contributed in recognition of the significant work that person has done to further the humanitarian objectives of Rotary.  Every Paul Harris Fellow receives a pin, medallion and a certificate when he or she becomes a Fellow.  This identifies the Paul Harris Fellow as an advocate of the Rotary Foundation's goals of world peace and international understanding. 

Rotarians often designate a Paul Harris Fellow as a tribute to a person whose life demonstrates a shared purpose with the objectives of The Rotary Foundation.  Today we have the honor and pleasure of recognizing  Duncan Kamau Ngochi as he becomes a Paul Harris Fellow. 

Duncan was designated to receive this special recognition as an expression of sincere appreciation from the Rotary Club Sunshine Coast – Sechelt, British Columbia, Canada. 

A world of peace and good will comes closer to reality today as Duncan becomes a Paul Harris Fellow.  It is because of support and commitment from people like Duncan  that The Rotary Foundation is able to carry out an array of programs that achieve beneficial changes in our world: 

-  improved living conditions, 

-   increased food production, 

-   better education, 

-  new channels for the flow of international understanding,  

-  and brighter hopes for peace throughout the world. 

Today this Paul Harris Fellow award is given to Duncan Kamau Ngochi . 

Duncan has been our Project Manager for 3 years, working in the very arid Ndandini and Kyaithani area of Kenya south-east of Nairobi.  Duncan was responsible for managing all of the on-site work for the successful Ndandini Rotary Matching Grant water project.  This project, which was supported by the generosity of Rotary Clubs and many non-Rotarians, resulted in the successful drilling of the very productive Ndandini borehole in June 2010 and making water potentially available for over 3000 people in the Ndandini and Kyaithani area of Kenya .  

Duncan managed the acquisition and installation of a drip-irrigation greenhouse for the Ndandini Primary School in July 2010, a project that has resulted in the growing of year-round crops in the area for the first time.  This project was a result of  the generous support of St. Hilda’s Anglican church in Sechelt, BC Canada. 

Duncan also managed all of the on-site work for our Solar and Scholarship Project this year for the Kyaithani Secondary School.  This has seen power and lighting installed, an internet-enabled computer with TV/DVD and camera provided, and the provision of 9 scholarships.  This project was supported by the generosity of Rotary Clubs and many non-Rotarians. 

Duncan has also managed all of the on-site work this past 12 months on the Community Garden project.  This has seen the acquisition of land and the installation of a large community greenhouse and a small building to accommodate volunteers who go to Ndandini.  This project was made possible by the generous donation of a non-Rotarian. 

Duncan is now continuing his support and commitment by working with us on the Ndandini Water Distribution Rotary Global Grant project which will deliver water from the Ndandini well to 6 schools in the Ndandini and Kyaithani area, making potable water much more easily available to the 3000+ people living in the area. 

We acknowledge and sincerely thank Duncan for: 

his personal dedication and commitment for almost 3 years,  

his time away from his home and family,  

his endurance of hardship in the village with no facilities,  

his donation of personal funds for many things that were never invoiced,  

and his suffering injuries in a taxi roll-over while en-route to Ndandini to do work for our project.  

Without Duncan’s daily communication with us and all the work he has done, these projects would never have happened. 

 It gives us great pleasure, Duncan, to present these three emblems of recognition and appreciation which are given to each Paul Harris Fellow: 

 Your certificate,   

  Your medallion,   

   And Your Paul Harris pin,  

We heartily congratulate you and thank you Duncan 

   for your commitment to Ndandini,  

   for your commitment to the projects sponsored by our many donors,  

   and for helping the  Rotary Foundation with its humanitarian programs. 

The Rotary Club of Sunshine Coast – Sechelt 

    On behalf of the many individuals and Rotary Clubs around the world who have partnered in these projects. 

REPORT ON VISIT TO NDANDINI and KYAITHANI Sept 30 2011

We (Jan & Terry) have just returned from several days visiting the Ndandini and Kyaithani villages.  We are very pleased with the progress that has been made over the past year since we last visited in September 2010 after drilling the well at Ndandini.

All work has been completed at the community garden and a ladies group has been formed that is already starting to turn the soil inside the greenhouse.  They are so excited with what is happening at their village and so committed to getting started.


They have decided that they want to start planting inside the greenhouse as soon as they can, even though they will have to fetch water by donkey from the well site (some 4km away) for the drip-irrigation until the tractor and water wagon becomes a reality early next year.

The sight of the very large 8x24 metre greenhouse inside the fenced acre of land along with the new volunteer building and toilet hut is quite impressive in this area of mud & thatched huts and basic mud brick buildings.

There are 250+ tomato plants growing inside the greenhouse at the Ndandini Primary School that St. Hilda's church donated last fall.  The plants are each over 5 feet tall!  What a sight.



The womens group doing the work there are very excited with the crop and the fruits of their labour.










Unfortunately, because the only green to be found in the area is the drip-irrigated gardens at Ndandini, the birds have found the outdoor garden and are feeding on the Kale leaves.

It would be great if we could provide a netting cover over the outdoor garden area to protect the crop from being eaten by the birds.















The newly installed solar system at the Kyaithani Secondary School is making a big difference in the habits of the students there.

Many of them leave home in the dark at 3:30am to get to school by 4:30am to study under the lights.  With average family income of 100 Ksh/day ($1), they cannot afford to spend 80 Ksh/night for a litre of kerosene for lighting at home to do their homework there.

We delivered a PC, internet connection, DVD player, LCD TV and camera and spent several hours training the teachers how to get started with them.  We have already received emails from the teachers and several students.

We met with the 9 Kyaithani Secondary School students who each received a $300 scholarship this past year and had a chance to talk with each of them.  They are all eager to start exchanging emails with donors and especially with other students.  We have set up an email address for students, teachers and the administration.

We are actively soliciting donations for hopefully even more scholarships for next year.  Check out www.ndandini-scholarshipfund.blogspot.com for more information about the scholarship program.

We also visited each of the 6 school sites in the Kyaithani School Cluster where we will be installing water tanks and soon delivering water from the Ndandini well with a tractor and water wagon.  In concert with the teachers and parents, we have identified the best location at each school for the water tank as it will be used by nearby villagers as well as the school itself.  We can now begin constructing the bases for these water tanks.  At each of the schools we were impressed with the support of the teachers and parents.   The parents at each school have planted a garden to support the school meal program even though now they have to bring the water by donkey from the dry riverbed over 4km away (and scoop in the sand to get that water!).

The entire extended Ndandini and Kyaithani community of over 3000 people is now truly becoming united and working together.

Everywhere we went we were asked to "THANK THE DONORS"!  And we do indeed.  It is all happening because of your support.  Thank you.  Please keep it up.

Terry

COMMUNITY GARDEN GREENHOUSE INSTALLED!

This past week our project manager has been working very hard out at Ndandini. 

He and his workers have installed the solar system at the Kyaithani Secondary School as well as the 8x24m drip-irrigation greenhouse at the community garden.  The building where volunteers can stay is also now complete - and it even has a wash basin, shower and toilet.

Very hard work in very hot and dry conditions.  Good work Duncan!

Terry

Water IS COMING to 6 Ndandini area schools!

We have received word that our requested Rotary Grant has received funding!  That means that we will be able to install a water storage tank at each of the 5 primary schools in the Ndandini / Kyaithani area of eastern Kenya as well as at the Kyaithani Secondary school.

We also will be able to provide a tractor and water wagon (similar to the one pictured below) to deliver the potable water from the Ndandini well to each of these storage tanks.  There will be 3000+ villagers getting access to potable water because of this project.

Thanks to everyone who has helped raise the money for this project and also to those who will be helping with the actual project work over the next 3 or 4 months.

Terry

New VOLUNTEER BUILDING on the Community Garden land

Just wanted to show how the new "VOLUNTEER BUILDING" is coming along.  This is a basic one room building that is being constructed on the land for the community garden.  It will provide a place for volunteers who go to Ndandini to sleep overnight.  It will have a shower and wash basin and a small solar system for charging camera, cellphone and computer batteries and for a light.  There will also be potable water from the Ndandini well.  You will still have to bring your own sleeping bag and food supplies as there is nothing else around.
Terry

Rotary Global Grant update

Today we received notice from TRF (The Rotary Foundation) that our global grant application has passed all the preliminary scrutiny after we answered all their questions.  The application has now been forwarded for a final funding decision.  I am hopeful that we will receive further notice within a week or so.

Terry

ALMOST THERE! Now applying for the final grant for the Water Distribution Project

Thanks to everyone, we have now received commitments from various Rotary Clubs around the world for sufficient funds to allow us to apply for a Global Grant from Rotary International to provide all the funding that we will need for the project to provide water storage tanks at all the schools in the Nandini area of Kenya and to provide a tractor and water wagon to keep those tanks full of potable water.

I hope to hear from Rotary International shortly regarding their review of our grant application.  I will post the information when I get it.

In the meantime, here is the contents of a letter that I just received from one of the Primary Schools which will be getting one of the water tanks:

2011/07/12

From Mary Kilonzo

Assistant Teacher, Ndunguni Primary School

BENEFITS OF DISTRIBUTING THE BOREHOLE WATER AT NDANDINI TO THE SCHOOLS WITHIN THE KYAITHANI CLUSTER

The following are some of the perceived benefits upon distributing the above mentioned water to the schools within the cluster:

A. It will improve the health status of both the teachers and pupils as,

(i) it will provide clean and purified water for drinking and cooking,

(ii) the water drawn from the rivers is mostly contaminated and there are reported cases of infections of waterborne diseases.

B. If the water is supplied to the schools it will support projects in the schools. Such projects include

(i) horticultural farming which in turn will supplement the pupils diet.

(ii) building and construction projects within schools will be easily carried out.

(iii) agro-forestry - it will make it easy to plant trees and forests within the schools compound.

(iv) it will enhance the schools to establish fish ponds which will supply the schools with fish to supplement the pupils diet.

C. At the moment the water used in the schools is carried to the schools by the pupils or alternatively supplied by the parents. On having piped water the schools will therefore offload the pupils and parents from this.

D. When the parents are unable to supply water to the schools, they end up buying water whereby some levies are charged for this and those parents who fail to pay the bill their children are sent away from school affecting their performance. The piped water will relieve the parents the burden of paying such levies and be able to direct the charges to other education related costs.

E. The piped water will be used to clean the compound and make the pupils grow up in a clean environment. This will be achieved through regular washing of the ablutions and classes together with the offices.

F. Water is essentially used in teaching process mostly in science laboratories in high schools and science lessons in primary schools. With the supply of piped water it will therefore serve the purpose and hopefully improve the classroom instruction process by motivating both the teachers and pupils.

G. With the supply of water to the schools, some schools will be possibly promoted to boarding schools where the pupils/students will be confined within the school environ. This will cut the cost of day to day walking to the schools which is a burden to the pupils. The confinement will create more time for the pupils to embark on their academics.

NB. All the above factors will compound to improved socio-economic and academic standards in the schools within the cluster.

(signed) Mrs. Mary Kilonzo

UPDATE - Fundraising for the Ndandini Water Distribution Project

We are making good progress towards our goal of raising the necessary us$62,500 for the project to bring potable water from the Ndandini well to the 3000 villagers and schoolchildren living in Kyaithani (in the greater Ndandini area).

Our first goal is to raise us$25,000 from various Rotary clubs and private donors.  So far we have commitments for us$20,000.  Not there yet, but getting close.  Can you help?

Once we have this money committed, we will then be in a position to apply for the us$37,500 in grants from Rotary to complete the project fundraising.

We are hoping that we can complete the $25,000 portion of the fundraising early in June, apply for the grant in July, and get the project underway by September.

Terry

WATER DISTRIBUTION PROJECT moves a bit forward

Our plans to create another Rotary Project to distribute the potable water from the Ndandini well so that the 3000+ people living near Kyaithani Village can get access to the precious water have moved several steps further in the past month.

We have put together the proposal for a plan (total cost approximately us$62,500) which has been now been accepted by The Rotary Foundation.  The proposal would see us install water tanks at the 6 schools in the Ndandini area and provide a tractor and water wagon to deliver the potable water from the Ndandini well to each school.  1200 schoolchildren will benefit from this every day.  We also aim to install 3 more water tanks in locations around the village area so that we will reach all 3000+ villagers.

We will need us$25,000 in donations for this project.  Once we raise that amount (hopefully by July 1, 2011) we can then apply to The Rotary Foundation for grants totalling us$37,500 which will provide the total funding for the project.

We have already secured us$5,000 and are actively seeking partners for the additional us$20,000.

If you can help, email terryumbach@hotmail.com for additional information.

Terry

COMMUNITY GARDEN UPDATE - land now fenced

Our Project manager Duncan and the villagers have been very busy this past month.  The one acre plot of land for the community garden which we secured clear title to in February has now been cleared and totally fenced.

The villagers will be continuing to do the final clearing and then we will be ready for the building of a bunkhouse (which volunteers can use for sleeping overnight) and the installation of the drip-irrigation greenhouse and outdoor garden.

Keep watching for more progress reports as we move towards our goal of a community garden for Ndandini.

Terry

UPDATE - thoughts for distributing well water to Kyaithani and 6 schools

We earlier reported that a project was being investigated to see if we could construct a pipeline from our very successful well in Ndandini to the village of Kyaithani, some 4km distant, which is home to over 3000 villagers.

I am pleased to be able to report that since drilling the Ndandini well in June 2010, it still continues to produce clean water at the original rate of 19,000 litres/hour (when the pump is active).  This is very good news as it shows that the water source, some 9 months later, is still highly productive.  With this reassurance, we can more confidently proceed with plans to try to distribute the water from the well to more distance beneficiaries.

Our water distribution investigations are now pointing us in a slightly different direction.  We are looking at the possibiliity of providing a TRACTOR and WAGON with water tanks.  We saw one last September while in Kenya (see below) and that got us thinking more seriously about this option.

A pipeline would provide water at only one point where we could install a storage tank and a set of taps.

A tractor could DELIVER water to each of the 6 schools in the Ndandini/Kyaithani area that have no water as well as to several potential storage tanks and distribution taps around the village area!  We are thinking that this might be a much better way to get clean water to more people in the near term.

If you consider there are approximately 200 children at each of the 6 schools, that's 1200 people that would be getting clean water every day because of this project.  A couple of extra storage tanks in the village and we can reach the whole 3000+ people in the Kyaithani area.

We are working on developing the project budget and setting this up as another Rotary matching grant project (similar to the very successful one which resulted in the provision of the Ndandini well).

If you are a Rotary Club, or an individual whether a member of Rotary or not, that would be interested in getting involved with us on this project, let me know at terryumbach@hotmail.com .

Keep watching for more news as we move forward on this promising initiative to make more use of the water from the Ndandini well site.

Terry

COMMUNITY GARDEN UPDATE - Land now secured

We have successfully completed the negotiations with the landowner and now have secured clear title to the one acre of land for the community garden.  Thanks again to the great on-the-ground work of our Nairobi based project manager Duncan.

The Ndandini Water Committee, headed by Kimali who is the principal at the Kyaithani secondary school, is now coordinating the colunteer labour of the village to clear the land in preparation for the next step in the project.

We are hoping that by mid-March the land will have been cleared of all the current brush (it has been unused for a while) so that Duncan will then be able to get the whole plot fenced to keep all grazing animals out of the area and away from the eventual drip-irrigation garden.

Keep watching for updates as this part of the project gets underway. 

Terry