We fully expected to be filling your eyes with photos of the Hatch the Hatchery project in Kakamega Kenya, the fulfillment of Sister Agnes’s dream. However, her consultant, Patrice Lumumba had an unexpected death in his family which has put a delay on going to Mombasa for a vehicle purchase and picking up the rest of the equipment for the hatchery. The workers have been working to make the electrical and water connections at the hatchery. So, we hope to have the issue that will be devoted to the hatchery next month. Last minute word from Patrice is they have purchased the incubator now.
This month, we will share more information about Mother Charity’s projects as well as new information on Mama Dinah’s community. We might throw in just a tidbit about one of our team members who lives in Ireland just to round things out a bit.
Mama Charity has an idea that can help prevent more children from becoming orphans. She has a plot of land, located not too far from the orphanage, that has been loaned to her for at least 10 years to grow fruit trees for the use of the orphanage. There are many young widows in the surrounding area of the orphanage, who have no way of supporting their children thus making them at risk of sending the children to an orphanage. Mama Charity would like to have about 20 women in this position, plant peanuts on a 20 x 30-meter piece of land, loaned to them. She will pay them 25,000 FCFA ($54.33 (CAD)/$42.60 (USD) as well as pay for the needed supplies. The women will do the planting, cultivating and harvesting and they will re-pay Mama Charity for the micro – loan. They will keep any extra money earned for raising their children. She is happy to find a way of helping the community and believes it is very important children be raised by their parents.
She has also shared another story with us that breaks our hearts and lights a desire in us to make a difference in the community. Recently, the social workers brought Mama Charity an 11 – month old baby who was still breast – feeding. The baby’s mother was raising the baby without his father and had very few resources. She was arrested by the police at the marketplace for stealing money which she says she did not do. She was taken to prison where she may end up staying in jail for an extended time as she has no income to pay any fines etc. Social Services took the baby and looked for placement and in 3 days brought the child to Mama Charity to take in as an orphan. This incident which she says is not uncommon, left all of us wondering what we might do in the future to support a different outcome. Right now, all our resources and fundraising are going to getting water for Mama Dinah’s community.
Mama Dinah tells us a few weeks ago they had a heavy rain. The rains usually begin in March and April, so this has been very fortuitous. Her family assisted in going to get the cows from where they had been moved to, and brought them home. You remember the photos of the cows from last month’s newsletter, they have had inadequate food anMama Dinah tells us a few weeks ago they had a heavy rain. The rains usually begin in March and April, so this has been very fortuitous. Her family assisted in going to get the cows from where they had been moved to, and brought them home. You remember the photos of the cows from last month’s newsletter, they have had inadequate food and water and had to be moved slowly back home. She lost over 100 cattle and it will take 2 ½ years to build up the herd again. And if drought continues, there is no telling what the future will look like. This Maasai tribe had generations of being pastoralists, raising cows, selling milk for income and cows and goats for both food and income. With climate change, they are forced to think of alternative forms of sustainability. During the drought, Mama Dinah had an inspiration! She started thinking outside the box. When the borehole is dug, she started imagining they could start exploring the option of agriculture to meet their needs. Having been pastoralists for so long, counting solely on raising cows, she wonders if their land could be used for growing fruit trees, and whether they can have a livelihood from selling the fruit. Mama Dinah is planning a trip to the Agriculture department to explore whether they have the right soil and weather conditions to grow orange, lemon, avocado and maybe coconut trees and what the market would be. This is all in the early exploratory stage right now. Mama Charity in Togo is able to grow coconut and has offered to give Mama Dinah advice if she finds they can grow them in Kenya.
Coconut Tree 
Cows before the rains 
Cows after the rains
We have had the good fortune to have two large donors who wish to support bringing water solutions to Mama Dinah. She has now received 3 new proposals for drilling a borehole and is comparing them. There is not enough money to drill the borehole and provide the solar operated pump yet. Mama Dinah is getting information on exactly how much needs to be set aside for the borehole and contingency and other expenses and getting a new estimate on the costs of the solar operated pump. This will require at least one storage tank so water can be pumped during the sunlit days and stored for both daytime and nighttime use. A woman in Germany who was touched by the needs for water in Mama Dinah’s’ community started a fundraising campaign there and was able to raise KSh 1.1Million ( $12,340.00 (CAD)/ $9,680.00 (USD). We expect to have more information and movement within the next couple of months. We do need to point out that without the funds to purchase the solar operated pump for the borehole, there will still be no water for the community. We are currently celebrating International Women’s Day with a fundraiser to honor these 3 women community leaders and specifically the needed funds for the solar pump for Mama Dinah.
During a recent team meeting where we learned about the updates on each project and the additional changes that each project is considering, we had a moment of lightness and upliftment. Siobhan Mullan, who is on our leadership team and lives in Ireland was on call during the meeting for a sheep that was expected at any moment to birth triplets. Siobhan has a civil engineering background and not only thinks outside the box as we explore options in all projects, but she has also been a very valuable resource for Mama Dinah’s community and water solutions. We were fortunate at the time, she was not called away to help mama sheep to birth her triplets
