Greetings friends,
Thank you, for walking alongside us and our community partners this past year. With your commitment and support, 2022 was 12 months of hard work, growth, successes and celebrations.
Friendly Water for the World offers communities access to appropriate, sustainable, and scalable life-preserving technologies
Although intensive, our process is straightforward and easy to use. We spend months getting to know a community: we talk to clan leaders, elders, youth, widows, administrators, teachers, farmers and the unemployed. We visit with everyone we can. We talk about dreams and hopes, the past and the future, and we talk about now. When we know each other well, we gather as a large group of 150 or more that lasts a week. At this meeting we don’t talk about problems, needs and those things we lack. Rather, we discuss challenges, assets and solutions, as well as partnerships and support.
Together, we create a plan to introduce our seven technology improvements. Friendly Water for the World commits to a minimum of five years in the community, we hire a full-time staff member and, together, we get to work improving village life. This whole process is called Community Engagement.
Our partner communities struggle with water and food insecurity, poverty, high infant mortality, preventable illness, deforestation, poor soil health, and a lack of jobs.
We currently work with three communities in Western Kenya:
Matsakha- our first long-term partnership, Matsakha is home to 7,600 people living in 10 different villages. We started our partnership in Matsakha in October of 2020 with our first Community Engagement process.
Kambiri- our largest location and home to our main office, Kambiri is comprised of 18 villages with 9,700 total residents. We began work in Kambiri in November of 2021.
Vigulu- our newest partner, has 6,900 residents living in 13 villages. We just completed our Community Engagement a few weeks ago and will be starting our first training in January of 2023.
Each community carries out their work through a Community Based Organization (CBO) we help to create. Currently we work with: The Matsakha Youth Development Group (MYDG); the Kambiri Community Development Group (KCDG); and the newly formed Kevukima Group (KG) representing Vigulu.
These three communities, while very different from one another, share some of the same challenges:
90% of water is drawn from open sources and is not available year-round
95% of water is used untreated
100% of these communities use pit-latrines
100% of these communities routinely experience water-borne illnesses
Only 35% of all residents have regular access to soap
100% of children miss some school while walking to get water
70% of families cook food indoors over open fires
Inefficient cookstoves lead to deforestation and lost time as children and women search further and further for wood fuel
Only 40% of families have enough to eat year-round
Unemployment exceeds 40% among the youth and only 9% of the workforce has a stable income
Unaddressed, each one of these challenges can severely and negatively impact the life outcomes of thousands of women, men, and children. But they can also be mitigated by a thoughtful, inclusive, and well-organized approach to creating positive and sustainable change. For us to introduce a specific technology to a village, it must be capable of providing a health, social and economic benefit to the community.
Solutions offered:
Water Security- Our Rainwater Catchment Tanks provide 25,000-liters each of water storage. They can be built on-site, singly for a household, or in series for a school.
Clean Water- Friendly Water for the World provides, through sale, cost-share, or donation, a high-volume water filter capable of preventing the transmission of most pathogens. The filter core can be replaced every 5 years for only $5.
Our Improved Sanitation composting toilet design, made from ISSB bricks, protects water sources while greatly reducing the transmission of fecal-contact diseases.
Good Hygiene- Our multipurpose liquid soap adds another layer of protection to latrine use, food preparation, and household cleaning.
Safe Cooking- The rocket stove offers clean burning technology, a large reduction in fuel use, and a huge reduction in carbon monoxide and particulate matter production.
Better Building- The Interlocking Stabilized Soil Block (ISSB) builds both our Rainwater Catchment Tank and Composting Toilet. Built from primarily locally sourced materials, it is a smart and efficient way to build any wall.
Sustainable Food- Permagardens provide an easy and inexpensive (virtually free) method of doubling crop production and creating food security for a family.
Our results demonstrate that numerous co-benefits are created through each technology we introduce, which is a key to our long-term effectiveness in the community.
Some of our solutions’ impacts:
Children don’t miss school to fetch water, graduation rates increase, and teen pregnancy is reduced, as girls stay current in school and don’t drop out.
Year-round water access is established, giving communities the ability to grow rather than disappear. Women and girls can reclaim hours per day not spent walking to the nearest stream.
Incidents of water borne illness can be eliminated through consistent use and simple maintenance of our filter, so that money may be spent on school fees, crop seeds, or even a new business rather than medical bills.
Every ISSB brick pressed creates 6¢ in wages, and up to 400 bricks can be made per day, per machine. Our bricks are non-fired, saving precious forests from destruction and eliminating enormous amounts of smoke and ash.
Our soap made it possible for numerous, otherwise closed, schools to re-open during the pandemic. Every three liters of soap produced also creates $1 in local wages.
We don’t pay for outside labor; all our workers are from the local community which is where the money stays creating and transferring wealth within the village.
The traditional three-stone fire uses significant amounts of wood that needs to be collected or charcoal that needs to be purchased. Our Rocket Stoves conserve wood, conserve time, and protect the pulmonary health of women and babies.
The 60,000+ ISSB bricks made so far this year saved over three acres of forest.
Each Rainwater Catchment Tank built creates $600 in local wages while also offering a concrete defense to drought and irregular rainfall patterns driven by climate change.
Our trainings create transferable skills allowing for increased job opportunities and increased wages. Education is key!
Creating jobs with good pay empowers the community, encourages self-determination, and allows people to have more control of their own destinies.
In 2022, you supported the construction of 40 Rainwater Catchment Tanks, providing 1,000,000 (infinitely refillable) liters of Water Security for 22 Early Education, Primary and Secondary Schools in Kakamega County.
Over 10,000 liters of Multipurpose Liquid Soap were produced and sold in markets, stores, and door-to-door in both Matsakha and Kambiri.
By the end of December, over 80,000 ISSB bricks will have been pressed. Over 45,000 of these went directly into the construction of Rainwater Catchment Tanks.
So, what does all of this mean?
For some, it may be too abstract, too far away, too many moving parts, too much risk. There are so many details that it’s overwhelming.
To me, and the many people that support Friendly Water for the World, it’s an opportunity. It’s a chance to take a position, to add your name to the board, to be counted. It’s an opportunity to make a change, maybe a change for you, definitely a change for someone you’ve never met and may never meet.
And why do we work so hard to make this possible? Because at the end of day or the end of a month or the end of a year, it is gratifying to be part of something good. Something excellent. Something transformative. If this was easy, everyone would do it.
The work we do isn’t just about the recipient; if it was, we would just be a charity. The work we accomplish is about you as much as it’s about a villager in Africa. Friendly Water is committed, and has always been committed, to realizing that collective vision, the dreams and hopes of all in our world- and for all those reasons and all those people, including you- I would humbly appreciate your support.
Peace & joy,
