May, 2020: COVID-19 Prevention Training Update at Kyamwao Community

Our teams are working on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. Join us in our fight against the virus while maintaining access to clean, reliable water.

We are carrying out awareness and prevention trainings on the virus in every community we serve. Very often, our teams are the first (and only) to bring news and information of the virus to rural communities like Kyamwao, Kenya.

We trained community members on the symptoms, transmission routes, and prevention of COVID-19.

Due to public gathering concerns, we worked with trusted community leaders to gather a select group of community members who would then relay the information learned to the rest of their family and friends.

We covered essential hygiene lessons:

- Demonstrations on how to build a simple handwashing station

- Proper handwashing technique

- The importance of using soap and clean water for handwashing

- Cleaning and disinfecting commonly touched surfaces including at the water point.

We covered COVID-19-specific guidance in line with national and international standards:

- Information on the symptoms and transmission routes of COVID-19

- What social distancing is and how to practice it

- How to cough into an elbow

- Alternative ways to greet people without handshakes, fist bumps, etc.

- How to make and properly wear a facemask.

During training, we installed a new handwashing station with soap near the community’s water point.

Due to the rampant spread of misinformation about COVID-19, we also dedicated time to a question and answer session to help debunk rumors about the disease and provide extra information where needed.

Water access, sanitation, and hygiene are at the crux of disease prevention. You can directly support our work on the frontlines of COVID-19 prevention in all of the communities we serve while maintaining their access to safe, clean, and reliable water.

March, 2020: Kyamwao Community Sand Dam Complete!

Kyamwao Community, Kenya now has access to a new source of water thanks to your donation. A new sand dam was constructed on a sandy riverbed, which will build up sand to raise the water table and naturally filter water.

"The water point is set to be helpful to a large population of people who reside within this locality," said Bernards Nzai, a farmer who lives nearby. "The availability of water here will reduce the strains of walking for long distances. A lot of time which was consumed by fetching water will now be used for productive activities such as farming and businesses."

We worked with the Kwa Kalekye Self-Help Group for this project. The members and their families contributed materials and physical labor to complete the project. In addition, they were trained on various skills such as bookkeeping, financial management, project management, group dynamics, and governance. We also conducted a hygiene and sanitation training to teach skills like soapmaking and to help improve behaviors such as handwashing.

When an issue arises concerning the water project, the group members are equipped with the necessary skills to rectify the problem and ensure it works appropriately. However, if the issue is beyond their capabilities, they can contact our team of field officers to assist them.

Sand Dam

The community members collected all of the local materials like rocks and sand that were required for the successful completion of the dam. They also provided labor to support our artisans. The collection of raw construction materials takes longer than the actual construction. For a large sand dam, materials collection could take up to 4 months.

Siting and technical designs were drawn and presented to the Water Resources Management Authority and a survey sent to the National Environment Management Authority for approval before construction started. Once approved, we established firm bedrock at the base of the sand dam wall. In the absence of good bedrock, excavation is done up to a depth at which the technical team is satisfied that the ground is firm enough to stop seepage.

Then mortar (a mixture of sand, cement, and water) is mixed and heaped into the foundation. Rocks are heaped into the mortar once there is enough to hold. Barbed wire and rebar are used to reinforce the mixture.

Once the foundation is complete, a skeleton of timber is built to hold up the sludge and rocks above ground level. The process is then repeated until a sufficient height, width and length are built up. The vertical timber beams are dismantled and the dam is left to cure.

This dam measures 68.95 meters long and 5.5 meters high and took 1050 bags of cement to build.

Sand dam construction was simultaneous to the construction of a hand-dug well, which gives locals a safer method of drawing water. As the sand dam matures and stores more water, more of it will be accessible as drinking water from the well. To see that hand-dug well, click here.

The dam will continue to build up sand and store water with the ongoing rains. With this water, the surrounding landscape will become lush and fertile. However, it could take up to 3 years of rain for this sand dam to reach maximum capacity since sometimes it only rains once a year!

New Knowledge

The 3-day Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation Training (PHAST) was planned and organized by Judith Kituta, the Tawa Region sanitation and hygiene officer who coordinated with the area field officer, Paulson Mukonzi, to mobilize for the attendance of the group members on the scheduled dates. The group's chairperson was notified to inform the members about the training to ensure they were present.

Judith conferred with the field staff about their previous visits to households and interviews with community members to determine which topics the community still could improve upon. Despite the rains, the attendance of the members was fabulous and they even kept time, reported our staff. All of the group members made the training lively through group discussions, asking questions, and airing their views and opinions.

They decided to train on topics including health problems in the community; good and bad hygiene behaviors; how diseases spread and their prevention; choosing sanitation improvements; choosing improved hygiene behaviors; planning for behavioral change; handwashing; and soapmaking.

Members were introduced to the common water-related diseases, their modes of transmission, and preventive measures that can be taken to forestall their occurrences. The community members learned more about the diseases in their locality and how to best prevent their spread. They also realized the hygiene practices that are amiss in their homesteads, vowing to improve and adapt to better hygiene and sanitation practices.

As a preventive measure, the members were shown proper handwashing habits to prevent the recurrence of the spread of diseases. They were also walked through how to construct tippy taps to ensure they keenly followed up on the handwashing at their households.

Thank you for making all of this possible!

January, 2020: Kyamwao Community sand dam underway!

A severe clean water shortage at Kyamwao Community drains time, energy, and health from people here. Thanks to your generosity, we’re working to install a clean water point and much more.

Get to know this community through the introduction and pictures we’ve posted, and read about this water, sanitation and hygiene project. We look forward to reaching out with more good news!