Subject: 💦2023: Achieving Success Together💦

 

2023

The Numbers in Review!

With 2023 coming to a close, we are excited to reflect back on the many successful projects Friendly Water for the World has accomplished with the collaboration of our staff, Board of Directors, our Kenyan Community Based Organizations, and Kenyan schools, as well as Churches, Friends Meetings, Rotary Clubs, and Donors all around the globe. Our main objective was to address the challenges identified and faced by the communities we serve, which include:

  • Unreliable water sources due to unpredictable rain patterns

  • Poor waste disposal and sanitation

  • Water borne illness caused by untreated water

  • Contamination by pathogenic microbes due to lack of quality affordable soap

  • Increased teen pregnancy among girls who drop out of school

  • Increased risk of pulmonary disease among women and infants due to smoke inhalation from traditional three stone fires

  • Deforestation

  • Food insecurity among community members, and

  • Unemployment.

To address these challenges in the community, the following was achieved during the year 2023:

  • 60,000+ Interlocking Stabilized Soil Blocks (ISSBs) were produced

  • 40 Rainwater Catchment Tanks (RCTs) were constructed

  • 1,000,000 liters of water were stored

  • 4,000 liters of soap were produced and sold

  • 40 hollow membrane water filters were procured and sold to individual households

  • Our first protype Desiccating toilet was constructed

  • A demonstration permagarden was developed with a variety of vegetables sold locally

  • 5 members of the community adopted the permagardens at their homes

~ Ezra Kigondu, Assistant Programs Manager, Kenya

 

Friendly Water Programs Boost Local Economies and Put Wages into the Hands of Villagers in 2023

 
 
 

Throughout the year we talk a lot about the individual technologies and how they are performing. We focus on the outcomes and impacts these technologies are having on the community. We share testimonies from the community expressing how these technologies are affecting their daily lives.


What I don’t think we focus on enough is the individuals that are accomplishing this work for us every day and how their lives are affected. This year we paid out $62,561.81 (about KES 8.9 million) wages in Kambiri, Kerongo, and Matsakha. 


For the members of our Community Based Organizations (CBOs), their wages are categorized as DSA Daily Subsistence Allowance, which includes travel costs and meals. Many of the members and our own employees travel for work, and live away from home during the week, while they perform the duties required of them. During production they work six days a week, only breaking on Sundays, to travel home and visit with their families. The $62,000 we paid this year helps to directly support 30+ families. 


This represents money that was paid directly to individuals for them to live life. This represents food on the table, bills paid, school fees covered, doctors visits, home improvements, and on and on.


In addition to the wages that go directly to individuals from Friendly Water, our programs also boost the local economy for others in the community. Local residents who sell lumber, install gutters, provide plumbing services and more have shared with us the positive impact of our programs on their lives. Our masons frequently pool their meal funds to hire a person to cook lunch for them. Additionally, Friendly Water rents offices and land, purchases food items, hires drivers and utilizes caterers all within the communities in which we work.


This is the work I am most proud of, our ability to teach someone a skill that will help them improve their own life. Yes, we are training them to build our blocks, tanks and toilets, but these can be translated into many other professions that exist beyond Friendly Water. This extends our mission beyond our limitations, and I look forward to seeing the continued growth of the communities with whom we work.


~ Heather Avery, Director of Finance and Administration

 

Kambiri Build Yard Brimming with Activity!

Every morning 15-20 men and women arrive at Friendly Water’s Build Yard in Kambiri. They are there to work. The villagers hold jobs such as sifters, masons, water tenders, and trainers. The work they do is important and meaningful. They are helping build their communities, and they earn a good living doing so. This is the same yard where we built our prototype Desiccating Toilet and where we trained Master Masons from Matsakha and Vigulu how to build our Rainwater Catchment Tank.


But more than anything, this is where 40 members of our three Community Based Organizations have made over 100,000 Interlocking Stabilized Soil Blocks (the “eco brick”). It is a pleasure to help the over 34,000 villagers with whom we partner simultaneously achieve social, health, and economic benefits for themselves and their communities.


~ Curt Andino, Executive Director

Masons building Interlocking

Stabilized Soil Blocks (ISSBs) in Kambiri.

Thousands of new Interlocking Stabilized Soil Bricks (ISSBs) cure in the yard at Kambiri.

 

IRA Charitable Rollovers are a Great Way to Support Friendly Water this Holiday Season!


As you plan your required minimum distributions for this year, consider using your IRA account to make the most of your charitable giving! If you are at least 70½ years old, you can make a gift to Friendly Water for the World using funds transferred directly from an IRA without them counting as income for federal income tax purposes. These gifts are called Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCD) or rollover gifts.


The QCD rule allows traditional individual retirement account (IRA) owners to deduct their required minimum distributions (RMDs) on their tax returns if they give the money to a charity! The rule can reduce your income taxes by lowering your adjusted gross income.


Gifts from your retirement account made directly to Friendly Water don’t add to your taxable income and allow you to meet your required minimum withdrawal for the year.


Contact your IRA provider or use your IRA checkbook to make your gift. You may need to provide them with our Tax ID number, EIN 27-2510007.


Checks can be made payable and sent to:


Friendly Water for the World

900 Jefferson St. SE, Unit 6070

Olympia WA 98501

 
Friendly Water for the World, 900 Jefferson St. SE, Unit 6070, Olympia, WA 98501, United States

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