July, 2020: COVID-19 Prevention Training Update at Shiamboko Community, Oluchinji Spring

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.

Trainer Janet Kayi issues COVID-19 informational pamphlets

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 Shiamboko, Kenya.

Use the elbow to cough and sneeze

We trained more than 20 people 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.

Building a tippy tap handwashing station

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.

This young boy demonstrated excellent handwashing technique

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.

Handwashing using the tippy tap

During training, we installed a new handwashing station with soap near the community’s water point, along with a sign with reminders of what we covered.

The prevention reminder chart temporarily set up at training for review before installing it at the spring.

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.

The completed mask sewed during the tutorial

We continue to stay in touch with this community as the pandemic progresses. We want to ensure their water point remains functional and their community stays informed about the virus.

Social distancing check

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.

November, 2018: A Year Later: Shiamboko Community

A year ago, your generous donation enabled us to protect Oluchinji Spring for Shiamboko Community 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. Read more...

December, 2017: Shiamboko Community Project Complete

Oluchinji Spring in Shiamboko Community, Kenya is now a protected, clean source of water thanks to your donation. The spring is protected from contamination, five sanitation platforms have been provided for the community, and training has been given in sanitation and hygiene. Imagine the changes that all of these resources are going to bring for these residents! You made it happen!  Now, want to do a bit more? Join our team of monthly donors and help us maintain this spring protection and many other projects.

We just updated the project page with the latest pictures, so make sure to check them out! And please enjoy the rest of the report from our partner in Kenya:

Project Result: New Knowledge

With the help of a resource person in the community who has seen this type of project implemented in a another village, Mr. Habakkuk, we were able to recruit participants for hygiene and sanitation training. He went door to door to invite those who use the water from the spring.

Sessions were held in a community church building at a private school, which is also a beneficiary of the spring. Though we required at least 15 household representatives to attend, we were happy to find that even more people came just out of their pure interest to learn more about hygiene and sanitation. To our joy, we also found children waiting there.

Two of our facilitators covered several topics, including leadership and governance; operation and maintenance of the spring; healthcare; family planning; immunizations; the spread of disease and prevention. We also covered water treatment methods, environmental hygiene, hygiene promotion, and many others.

Participants had the chance to come up front and practice what they learned about hand-washing.

Demonstrations were some of the most popular parts of the training, with participants enjoying getting their hands involved. We did this with hand-washing, teaching the 10 steps of washing with soap and running water. And since we were already near the spring, we were able to teach about proper spring use, management, and simple maintenance.

Community members learning about how spring protection works, and how to best care for it.

Rosemary Khamete is a teacher who plans to share what she learned with her students. She said, "The training has been timely and has further enlightened us on the importance of hygiene and sanitation, things we previously were unaware of. We really appreciate this. As the headteacher at this school, I personally know i will educate my small pupils on everything I have learned here today, but more importantly on the ten steps of hand-washing, which will help reduce the cases of school absenteeism I have witnessed in the past. This community has greatly benefited!"

Project Result: Sanitation Platforms

All five sanitation platforms have been installed and are ready for use. These five families are happy about this milestone and are optimistic that there will be much less open defecation. People without proper latrines would often use the privacy of bushes, but now have a private place of their own. It is expected that proper use of latrine facilities provided by the sanitation platforms will go a long way in reducing environmental pollution here. We are continuing to encourage families to finish building walls and roofs over their new latrine floors.

This family has already built an impressive superstructure around their new sanitation platform!

Project Result: Spring Protection

Community members provided all locally available construction materials, e.g bricks, wheelbarrows of clean sand, wheelbarrows of ballast, fencing poles and hard core (crushed rock and gravel). Accommodation and food for the artisan were provided, and we asked a few people to volunteer their time and strength to help the artisan with manual labor.

The spring area was excavated to create space for setting the foundation of polyethylene, wire mesh and concrete. After the base had been set, both wing walls and the headwall were set in place using brickwork. The discharge pipe was fixed low in place through the head wall to direct the water from the reservoir to the drawing area.

As the wing walls and head wall were curing, the stairs were set and the tiles were fixed directly below the discharge pipe. This reduces the erosive force of the falling water and beautifies the spring. The process of plastering the head wall and wing walls on both sides reinforces the brickwork and prevents water from the reservoir from seeping through the walls and allows pressure to build in the collection box to push water up through the discharge pipe.

Lastly, the base of the spring was plastered and the collection box was cleaned. The source area was filled up with clean hardcore and covered with a polyethylene membrane to eliminate any potential sources of contamination. Community members then helped us plant grass and dig cutoff drains to direct surface water away from the spring box.

The artisan plastering the spring floor.

This process has transformed Oluchinji Spring into a clean water source. People gathered to celebrate this transformation by fetching their first buckets of clean water.

Mr. Habbakuk was so enthusiastic about this project ever since he witnessed it in a neighboring community. He expressed his gratefulness for the clean water now flowing in Shiamboko: "I have seen a project like this at a nearby village, and because I realized this is a credible institution I saw it fit to push for the same for us. I am delighted that this has finally happened, our children especially those in this school will now access clean and safe drinking water. This will ensure that we no longer suffer from water-related diseases, which will help us save money we previously used to seek for treatment.We are so happy, words alone are not enough to express our joy."

November, 2017: Shiamboko Community Project Underway

Shiamboko Community will soon have a clean, safe source of water thanks to your donation. Community members have been drinking contaminated water from Oluchinji Spring, and often suffer physical illnesses after doing so. Our partner conducted a survey of the area and deemed it necessary to protect the spring, build new sanitation platforms (safe, easy-to-clean concrete floors for latrines), and conduct sanitation and hygiene training. Thanks to your generosity, waterborne disease will no longer be a challenge for the families drinking the spring’s water. We look forward to sharing more details with you as they come! But for now, please take some time to check out the report containing community information, pictures, and maps.