![\"quarterly-project-update\"](\"https:\/\/thewaterproject.org\/community\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/quarterly-project-update-1024x337.jpg\")
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We can’t believe it’s almost summer! This year is flying by and thanks to your support, we have already\u00a0completed 49\u00a0projects with 26\u00a0currently under construction!<\/strong> That’s amazing and it’s all thanks to our incredible supporters and fundraisers – folks like YOU!<\/p>\n The Kilala North Self-Help Group<\/a> is comprised of subsistence farmers who grow crops for domestic use and keep animals. The group was formed in the year 2013 with the\u00a0main goal to improve their livestock breeds and their planting of trees. However, both of those activities require water, and the current lack of water has led to little\u00a0progress in attaining this goal. Instead, fetching water is the main activity of the day.<\/p>\n Says community member Mwangangi Mulwa, “The new water point is a miracle. No one imagined that we would have water so close to our homes. We will no longer have to make long trips in search of water.”<\/p>\n![\"16-kenya4475-fetching-water\"](\"https:\/\/thewaterproject.org\/community\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/16-kenya4475-fetching-water-300x200.jpg\")
Our quarterly project highlight features our Southeastern Kenya WaSH program<\/a> and a new well for the Kilala North Self-Help Group. As summer approaches and temperatures start to soar in the U.S., this program helps farmers in arid lands in Kenya gain access to clean water as well as improve their income and food security. The program mission is to enable communities to conserve soil and water by building sand dams and dug wells, digging terraces, planting trees, and developing farms.<\/p>\n![\"32-kenya4475-training\"](\"https:\/\/thewaterproject.org\/community\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/32-kenya4475-training-1-300x225.jpg\")
This specific project, a hand dug well, accompanies a sand dam already completed with the community. Before the well, to fetch water, people opted for the part of the river near the sand dam, because the sand that builds up acts as a natural filter. The only way to get to the clean water, however, is by digging. If you wanted clean water each time you arrived at the sand dam, you\u2019d have to dig a new hole. As you can imagine this isn’t only cumbersome and time consuming but it also\u00a0opens the water up to contamination.<\/p>\n
![\"36-kenya4475-completed-well\"](\"https:\/\/thewaterproject.org\/community\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/36-kenya4475-completed-well-300x200.jpg\")