A Year Later: Friends Emanda Secondary School

A year ago, your generous donation enabled us to install a rainwater catchment tank for Friends Emanda Secondary School in Kenya. The contributions of incredible monthly donors and others giving directly to The Water Promise allow our local teams to visit project sites throughout the year, strengthening relationships with communities and evaluating the water project over time. These consistent visits allow us to learn vital lessons and hear amazing stories – and we’re excited to share this one from local team member Samuel Simidi with you.

Emanda Secondary School is the best place to be! After implementation of the project, students now access clean and safe water within the school's compound. This enables the students to spend more time on their studies.

"Before implementation of the project, we used to get water from outside the school's compound and this really affected our student performance," Principal Mary Madengeya said to us.

Principal Mary Madengeya

"We are hoping for an improved performance this year. This is because our teachers now teach the students without disruptions or any of them unnecessarily missing class."

The school's sanitation and hygiene have generally improved as the students are using handwashing stations and the latrines are adequate to serve the population.

"Our students used to queue at the toilet as they were not sufficient and it consumed part of their lessons. That is no longer a problem," Mudengeya explained. "The water available has contributed to an improvement in the general hygiene and sanitation of the school."

A student fills his jerrycan with water during our September monitoring visit.

Construction of the tank is only one step along the journey toward sustainable access to clean water. The Water Project is committed to consistent monitoring of each water source. Our monitoring and evaluation program, made possible by donors like you, allows us to maintain our relationships with communities by visiting up to 4 times each year to ensure that the water points are safe and reliable.

This is just one of the many ways that we monitor projects and communicate with you. Additionally, you can always check the functionality status and our project map to see how all of our water points are performing, based on our consistent monitoring data.

One project is just a drop in the bucket towards ending the global water crisis, but the ripple effects of this project are truly astounding. This tank in Friends Emanda Secondary School is changing many lives.

Christine Aleyo posing in front of the tank

"We really appreciate and we are so happy because now we can access clean, safe water here in school," student Christine Aleyo said during our visit. "Sourcing water from outside the school's compound is now a thing of the past."

This is only possible because of the web of support and trust built between The Water Project, our local teams, the community, and you. We are excited to stay in touch with this community and support their journey with safe water.

Read more about The Water Promise and how you can help.