Well Done! Well, what next?

Well, the well is almost complete. And it has been a huge success.

From our initial hope for 4,000 liters of potable water an hour from the borehole to serve 600 people in the immediate Ndandini area we have expanded to actually producing 19,000 liters of water an hour and potentially being able to serve over 3000 people in the greater Ndandini and Kyaithani area.

All that remains for our original water project is for us to complete the security fencing around the tanks, borehole and generator building.

Once again, thank you everyone who contributed in any way since we started fundraising for this project way back in September 2007.

Well, what happens next?

In short, there are no plans for any additional extensions to our original project (to bring a well to the village of Ndandini.)

We have gathered an exceptional group of donors, both individuals and Rotary Clubs from around the world. Many donors have expressed an interest in what things might be able to be done “after”. We have tried to outline some ideas in our blog posts along the way as we completed this project.

It is our hope that those individuals or Rotary Clubs who have a desire to sponsor or get involved with any follow projects will do so.

We see many small projects that can be undertaken in the Ndandini and Kyaithani area. These projects do not require multi-club coordination and overall project management like the current water project did.

We have succeeded in developing a small group of responsible people in Ndandini and Nairobi that can now undertake some of these smaller projects themselves in cooperation with donors. For any donor who is interested, I can ensure that you get set up with the best people in Nairobi and Ndandini.

Some of the smaller project ideas include:
improved latrine blocks for all the six schools,
initial solar lighting and power systems for the other five schools,
initial computer, internet link and TV display for the other five schools.

There are also some bigger project ideas:
Implementation of the community garden and drip-irrigation/greenhouse,
Installation of a water distribution system to get the water closer to the people of Kyaithani,
A scholarship program to improve access to secondary and advanced education for area students.

We hopeful that the Kenyan government will take on the responsibility for the water distribution challenge.

We are continuing investigating issues and budgets relating to the community garden concept and will update the blog as we proceed with this.

We are also investigating possible ways of setting up an ongoing scholarship program.  It would be great if we could set this up as an on-line fundraiser which can also issue Canadian tax receipts for individuals.  Again we will keep the blog updated with progress in this area.

All the people of Ndandini and Kyaithani send their "asante sana" - thank you very much!!

Terry