A Boost Along the Way

Confident in success

More than 30 groups of women have been writing letters to Project Manager Kisioki Moitiko asking to be included in the International Collaborative programs for women's groups. They wish to receive our training, support, and encouragement.

Some of these groups sent delegations to the ICSEE office and to Kisioki’s residence. They remind Kisioki of their letters, and hope to find that their request was successful.

Whether or not we can include them is entirely a funding issue. With financial support, the women get a boost in capital. In addition, we send a staff member to visit the groups to provide training, support, and encouragement.

We have the resources to start four new groups at this time. The groups selected are passionate about their wish to participate, and we are confident they will succeed. .

Annual celebration,"Breaking their Bank" in Nadosoito village

Two of the groups are in the village of Esilalei and one in Losirwa, where we already have well-functioning groups. The fourth is in an area new to us, Laksale, about half way between Arusha and Laksale Mountain.

A while back, we helped the women of Nadosoito village organize themselves into these groups that share money in their collective bank and strengthen their businesses with loans and allotments. 

 Recently, they held their annual celebration where they distribute profits to all the women. They also settle on the amount to leave in their bank as the starting capital for the following year.We are always invited.

These events are a great celebration of success and optimism. They call the celebration “Breaking their Bank."

Alleviating hardship

However, this year, it wasn't all celebration. The women told us of a hardship that their greater earnings simply don’t alleviate. They live in the view of the escarpment, the great cliff at the edge or the Ngorongoro Highlands. This escarpment provides a good source of water at its base. But to get the water, the women of Nadosoito have to walk to the village of Selela, close to the base. This takes more than two hours every day.

When we heard of their hardship, we realized we had the ability to help with their difficult water situation.

The government had installed a very large water tank in the area. With gravity only, it is kept full of water from the escarpment. The tank is located right in between our 40-acre hay farm and Nadosoito, which is just three kilometers away from the tank.

We decided that while we can't make everything better, we would lift this water collection burden from the backs of these women.

To bring water closer, we will install two 5,000-liter tanks; one just south of our hay farm, and one to the north. We are installing an additional valved outlet in the government tank leading to a pipe that fills our tank to the south.

Then the water will be piped across our hay farm to the tank on the north, right near the village. We will install faucets and the women of Nadosoito can collect this water that turns out to be clean and safe and requires no treatment.

We’ll soon be surveying the areas where the tanks will be installed.Pumping may be required, depending on the elevations. If so, we’ll install our simple solar-powered pumps which are highly effective.

There is an opportunity for much needed community participation in the water project, and the women are already organizing it.

 The people will need to dig several kilometers of trenches to bury the pipes.  

Our cost for the entire project, as described here, will be just a few thousand dollars. 

 We feel this is an especially helpful way to invest your donations. The overhead is almost zero, and the technology tested and sure. The women will have many more hours each week to spend more productively than daily treks to the escarpment in Selela.

The benefits to the people are enormous, yet wonderfully inexpensive.

This quantity of water can serve 100 families.The plan is complete and the people are ready!

Help the people access clean water

For a better life for rural Africans, and a cleaner environment for all

International Collaborative for Science, Education, and the Environment

Office of Programs and Development

30531 Abington Court

Laguna Niguel, CA  92677  USA

1-508-735-9176

www.internationalcollaborative.org