456 lives changed by access to fresh tap water - Aysha's story

Link International Innovation has been working with John Njenda for 30 years and together with our generous supporters so many iives have been transformed through education, healthcare, access to clean water and genuine mutual partnership with communities across Uganda. Helen writes this month about her visit to John and the work of the Nkuru Nziza Foundation and the transformation brought by providing water taps to a village.

In fact the piped network, seen in this map of the system, has changed the lives of 456 people in this remote rural community. Click below to read the full story.

A Marvel - Asilomar June 2024 progress

Helen, our project co-ordinator from UK has been to visit Norbert, the team and pupils over the last few days and she reports, “It was a delight to visit the school, meet the students and staff, and hear about the permaculture project there – so much positive feedback, and I am still marvelling at how much has been achieved in such a short space of time.

The demo plots at Asilomar base are also going well, and Norbert and I have had some really good conversations looking not just at the now, but also at the possibilities of what could lie ahead.”

Above: Norbert’s pupil/staff leadership team - Norbert, Daniel (vice chair), Lucy (chair), Daniel K (secretary) and Lennox.

Below: Photos of the water tower and demo gardens showing new improved and more environmentally friendly methods of food production.

 

Helen has written up a fascinating personal summary of her visit on her own blog “Soft heart, hard feet” - it is in 2 instalments!

 

Asilomar restarts following rain devastation in Kenya

Norbert reports:

We are now back in action following the aftermath of the heavy rainfall that left many people devastated in many parts of the country. 

We were spared the havoc here in Msumarini. Schools have now resumed this week 13th May 2024 and we hit the ground running. Today we were at the school garden with the young farmers planting fruit trees, bananas and trees. 

We had prepared the plot and planted cowpeas before the rains. They are blossoming. We will add a variety of vegetables by the weekend.

And here l am holding an empty tray  of cake made from nutritious finger millet that the students enjoyed just before we started the planting sessions.

Now that the rain have suddenly stopped, the ground has also gone dry very quickly and the plants are 'asking for water'. Watering all these plants with a bucket is a very complicated and interesting exercise for some of these students who have never planted anything. The school doesn’t have long enough pipe connected to the water tank next to the garden. The students are sharing the green bucket to water the plot. What a learning curve for them!

 

The end of May brings encouraging progress

The work on the Water Tower is still on going. The work is tedious and it has to be manually done - with no scaffolding!! But…the construction work will be completed by early June and then we embark on the plumbing work.

The school garden is doing well. The students got on with transplanting more vegetables among the cowpeas and a first crop has been harvested.

Notice the treasurer of young farmers club keeping a record of the first sale! The vegetables were bought by the teachers and some students to take home. The harvested amount is not enough to supplement students meal at school just yet.

The Asilomar Permaculture Project - Students learn on the first two intensive courses

Norbert writes: on Wednesday 17th April we have kicked off the training workshop. We prayed the rain would hold until later tonight, however, the skies opened...but the training continued on my veranda - 27 students crammed up in my veranda taking notes.

The second day of training went well. It rained most of the day but we had chance to do some practicals -  mulching, growing plants in pyramids and grow bags , companion planting etc.

They also had group assignment to design their own garden on paper.

Third day of training and the groups are making presentations of the farm. We are lucky we have a dry afternoon today and we can sit outside and not crammed up on my veranda!

Norbert interviewed several students about what they had learned and the difference it would make to their food production.

CONGRATULATIONS to Norbert and team and all the students.

The Second Course struggled a bit with the rains. Norbert reports: “The training for this group was interrupted by rain but we made good progress”.

Below are some photos of the course and videos of a few of the students saying what they had learned and what they plan to do with this new knowledge.

Norbert reports that the construction of the Water Tower has also started and the columns are now being set even as the rain pour down!

The next thing to do with the students is to establish the one acre garden in the school compound when schools resume next week.

NEWS - just in from Norbert in Kenya on the Asilomar Project

We have set the ball rolling and 60 students and 2 teachers from Msumarini Secondary School have been visiting Asilomar to see and experience what we are doing with our permaculture programme.

We have had a very dry season and the compound was beginning to turn very brown. We hope and expect the delayed rainfall will come in April. We had a good shower of rainfall one day last week and also this morning. Meanwhile we have been preparing the grounds for planting and have already planted some vegetables.

This is what we wanted the students to see before we embark on the first phase of training programme, which we have now scheduled on April 17th - 27th,  if the funds permitting. It will be an intensive theory training programme with some practical sessions. We will then have weekly practical training sessions during term time. The schools are now on holiday until end of April but the students have offered to come to the training during this holiday time. It actually works out better for the training because there is no interference with the school timetable which was always going to be a great challenge.

My immediate need at Asilomar is Water tower. We have a challenge with the distribution of water in the compound and  the Water tower will make life much easy. The drawing above shows how it will work.

The costings for the water tower are as follows:

PHASE 1

1.     EXCAVATION & BACKFILLING, 2m² = 6,000KSH

2.     CONCRETE FOOTING & FOUNDATION, 0.6m² = 12,600KSH

3.     4 NO. COLUMNS in foundation 0.32m² @24,000 = 7,680KSH

4.     CONCRETE FLOOR SLAB, 2.4㎡²³ @ 12,000 = 28,800KSH

5.     4 NO R.C COLUMNS, S.38M² @ 24,000 = 129,120KSH

6.     12 NO R.C BEAMS, 3.24 M²³ @ 22,000 = 71,280KSH

7.     REINFORCED CONC SLAB (4 x 4 x 0.15)3 7.2m² @ 10,000 = 72,000KSH

8.     FINISHING (Plaster), 164.52 m² @350 = 57,5825KSH

TOTAL for Phase 1 = 385,062KSH

 

PHASE 2

1.     PIPES 55 pcs (Assorted 3/4’ , 1’/15’) @ 750 – 41,250KSH

2.     REDUCERS - 10pcs @ 750 = 7,500KSH

3.     SOCKETS, ELBOWS ETC - 60 pcs @ 60 = 3,600KSH

4.     GATE VALVES - 10 pes @ 1,500 = 15,000KSH

5.     Other Plumbing Items. (Glue, thread Seal, etc) = 3,000KSH

6.     Labour (Approx) = 22,000KSH

TOTAL for Phase 2 = 92,350KSH

TOTAL for Phase 1 & 2 in GBP = approximayely £3,000.00