TRANS-MARA: So, this is what we are here to talk about. This spring is shared, as you can see, by all members of the community. The ladies get water from 5-8 every day and then must let the livestock be watered. Now think about this, how many of us have to share your water resources directly with cows? This trek to the water source every day, and the queue to fetch the water leads to another problem. The women may be away all morning fetching water and their children, home from school awaiting lunch
TRANS-MARA, KENYA: This is Lucy's site-she is working with the Maasai women of Emeyian Orphans Support Group in a small hillside village in Trans-Mara. Lucy runs an NGO called Indigenous Information Network. She has been around the world and back advocating for the rights of indigenous peoples and trying to encourage them to value adn apply their traditional knowledge and practices especially when dealing with environmental issues.
TRANS-MARA, KENYA: Emily, the secretary of Emeyian Orphans Support Group.
TRANS-MARA, KENYA: We received some special gifts from the ladies before we left the community. Gemma is holding a gourd that they use to carry milk in and I am wearing a shawl that married women wear. They sent us off with a song (of course!) but we have big plans to come back and work with this community.
TRANS-MARA, KENYA: The people of this village still live a very traditional life. They have an awareness of how valuable their water sources are and about the importance of safe drinking water and are very willing to work on improving their situation, all they need and are asking for is help.
KENDU BAY, KENYA: The kids are always close by when we are around!
KENDU-BAY, KENYA: This is the Power Positive self-help group that Hannie and Benta work with. These wonderful women are all widows and are all HIV positive and they started this group because their husbands started dying and they starting getting sick and they didn't understand what was going on. Now they are a support group for each other and they encourage other women to form similar groups to support those who are victims, educate communities about HIV, improve the quality of life of those suffering from HIV, and help the many orphans who lose their parents to HIV and AIDS. Access to safe water is an important part of living a healthy life when you have HIV or AIDS so they will incorporate what they learned at the Women and Water Conference into their outreach program.
KENDU BAY, KENYA
KENDU BAY, KENYA: I love her! There was a lot of singing and dancing with this group. They greeted us with a song where the chorus went, "it's too late to save my life, it's too late to save my life, it's too late to save my life, just give me a chance to live." Wow, amazing women!
KENDU BAY, KENYA: A Power Positive woman!
KISUMU, KENYA: Portable Microbiology Laboratory test taken by the ladies of GWAKO Ministries. Before and after of a water source used in one of the areas they work in. In the tube yellow means presence of Coliform bacteria (the group E. Coli belongs to), if it fluoresces under UV light there is presence of E. Coli-and therefore presence of recent fecal contamination, because E. Coli lives in the intestines of humans and animals-in the 10 ml sample. On the Petri films, red spots mean Coliform bacteria, blue spots mean E. Coli is present in the 1 ml sample. So...this water is contaminated with E. Coli and after going through the BioSand filter...VOILA!
KISUMU, KENYA: The amazing BioSand filter installed in a small canteen. The owner of this shop is so excited and proud to be providing clean drinking water to her customers! And the word is getting out, all the local transport drivers stop along their route to get water. Clean water apparently brings more customers!
EN ROUTE TO KISUMU, KENYA
EN ROUTE TO KISUMU, KENYA: Love the load!
KATITO, KENYA: Solar cooking at the Solar Cookers International regional office with Jesca and Seline.
KATITO, KENYA: Oh, all the rain that is being wasted! We should be harvesting this great rainwater, but soon enough that's what Jesca and Seline will be doing. You should have seen the amazing lakes formed along side the roads after this 30 minute downpour.
KITUI, KENYA: Tei Wa Wo grandmothers working in the riverside garden; Tei Wa Wo is a community group focused on helping orphans and vulnerable children, people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHAS), and supporting kitchen gardening
KITUI, KENYA: Adorable children chasing and waving and smiling at the Muzungu (white person)
KITUI, KENYA: Helping the group with their project proposal
KITUI, KENYA: Working hard!
KITUI, KENYA: Sharing the water-this is a big issue here! A lot of the complaints from the women are that the animals are treated better than the people. But the quandary is that the animals are important as water carriers and they provide income and food so keeping them healthy helps the family. BUT, you also have to keep the family healthy so it's difficult to balance.
KITUI, KENYA: The leaders of Tei Wa Wo riding bicycles.
KITUI, KENYA: These kids were so fun! They gathered outside the meeting hall, where we were meeting with the members of Tei Wa Wo, and started to make a lot of noise. An older gentleman said to me, "they want to meet you, just come outside." And that's what they wanted, to say hello and shake my hand and then they would go back to school.
MERU, KENYA: Gemma, Alpha (renamed Holpha by her elementary school teacher), Betty, me and Jennifer-Betty's mother
MERU, KENYA: Market
MERU, KENYA: Local tea plantations. This tea is meticulously picked, taken to the local selling hall where it is bought from the local farmer, sorted, sacked and sent off to a regional center where it is again sorted into the better and best classes of leaves, dried, processed, sacked again and sent to places like Mombasa for weekly tea auctions where agents, like from Twinnings, bid on the best tea. It's bought, shipped wherever it's going, processed again, packaged and then ready for the tea-drinking public. This is where you really get the gist of fair trade, walking along, watching the people in the fields working daily picking leaves from these bushes, going home with a little money to feed their famil of 7, and we pay $8 a box for 20 tea bags and hardly ever think about where it comes from...how many of us ever get to see this?
MERU, KENYA: Working with Betty and Holpha to develop their project proposal action plan
MERU, KENYA: Holpha's beautiful niece, Blessing
MERU, KENYA: AVOCADO heaven! These monsters are huge and delicious!
MERU, KENYA: Coming from the forest with firewood
MERU, KENYA: Butcher shop
THIKA, KENYA: Little resident of the slum area where Beatrice and Lydiah work with women's groups
THIKA, KENYA: Visiting Beatrice and Lydiah's site in Thika-about 40 minutes outside Nairobi. They are part of a group called Boda Boda (originally called Border to Border, this happens a lof with word here!) that works in a slum called Kaidotu. There is a group of 40 women that meet twice a week to try and work on issues in their community. They have started some livelihood projects and they have something called a merry-go-round where every month they each give 100 KSh and one person gets the 4000 KSh to put towards their livelihood projects.
