Where is Mama Dinah’s Water Project now and what were the first whispers and process to bring it to this point?
On Wednesday October 5, 2022, the village chief, Mama Dinah, her husband (who donated the land for the new bore hole, her son, Boston, who lives in Narok, the nearest city to Mama Dinah’s community Oloonkerine, and Mr Taurus who runs the Sunshine Drilling Company, all met together to review the bore hole contract and sign it. Mama Dinah had thought they would need to pay for a lawyer to oversee the signing and Mr. Taurus advised her he knew the Maasai people to be true to their word and commitments and he was comfortable having the Village Chief oversee the signing and down payment.
At this meeting, Mr. Taurus indicated her would start drilling on Friday October 7, 2022
| Some History: |
| How did this project begin? When Lucille Mandin decided to officially establish Hand-in-Hand with African Women towards the end of 2020, as a non-profit, NGO (non government organization) she had already known the three African Women leaders for several years since she had been leading students from University of Alberta, Canada to Africa in a cross cultural experience for 10 years, from 2006 to 2016. She had been sending money for smaller projects, like supplying sanitary napkins for the adolescent girls in the school because they were missing classes each month when they had their menses. She sent money to Sister Agnes for bedding for the children who had been sleeping on the floor and to Mama Charity for the building of her new orphanage building. Lucille sent money from friends and family periodically to cover small needs. |
| Once she decided to found Hand-in- Hand (H i H) she drew to her others who shared the dreams of making a difference in Africa. Many had travelled in African and just like Lucille, saw the beauty and possibilities for communities that would thrive with a little boost in resources. Thus a leadership team was formed and included the three African Women leaders in their own communities. Each leader was asked to identify projects that would support their community to become more self sustaining and thrive. |
| Mama Dinah identified the bore hole at the community school as a challenge, It was drilled about 10 years prior by an organization working with the Maasai at the time. The bore hole was outfitted with a diesel generator to operate the pump. They were unable to operate the pump now because the generator was unable to be repaired when needed due to the lack of skilled people in the community. Then the cost of diesel fuel increased so much that in the last few years there was no money for fuel. Mama Dinah spoke of a solar powered pump. As the Hand-in-Hand team studied the situation, we discovered the bore hole was not supplying an adequate amount of water even when the pump was operational and the brackish water could not be used for the children to drink. The borehole was drilled for the use of the school. The H i H team had on it a civil engineer (Siobhan Mullan) who was able to study and advice the team members and all together it was felt a new bore hole with a larger water aquifer and solar pump would serve the community well. If this could be done, the dairy cows could be increased, a milk cooler could be purchased to store milk in a refrigerated container and milk could be sold for income. With the climate change and lack of rain, Mama Dinah and her community are looking at the possibilities of diversifying and whether fruit trees are a possibility with their soil and water conditions.. |
| H i H raised money and supported Mama Dinah in hiring a hydrologist to survey the land and determine potential for a better water source. A location was found on land owned by Mama Dinah’s husband and he agreed to donate this land to the community if a bore hole could be drilled on it. |
| The H in H team worked with each of the three African project leaders in developing a 5 year business plan. Hand-in-Hand developed its own 5 year business plan as well. These plans were all completed before the organization had its first year birthday (Founded in December 2020). |
| Now: |
| On Thursday October 6 we received a video from Mama Dinah showing drilling rigs driving across the dry land to the spot identified by the hydrologist. Mama Dinah stood in front of one of the rigs and told us she wanted to surprise us, the drilling was to begin that day and she showed a photo of the drill auger touching the sandy soil and sending up clouds of dust. |
We received a photo of day 2 drilling and then a message on day 3 that on the first day they had drilled 150 meters, second day was 130 meters and on the third day 50 meters. It was anticipated the bore hole would need to go to 350 meters to reach the best supply of water They ran out of piping and fuel so were coming back on day 4 to finish the last 20 meters. The next thing we received from Mama Dinah was a video of water flowing out of the hole as air was pumped down into the borehole. The final touches were completed on Day 4.
https://youtu.be/MP58Z8-Dl-I 1 minute 45 second video of air going down and water coming back at 350 meters depth
| One of our leadership team said this about the video of the drilling trucks arriving on the Maasai Land. “I started getting tears in my eyes and later when I told my friends about this day, I could not do so without lots of tears in my eyes.” Then 4 days later, when we received the video of the air being pumped down into the borehole and water coming up out of the pipe, I started tearing up even more. When a friend asked me what this was about for me, I had to stop and wonder why I was crying and my response at first was this was a marking point in a 2 year dream for this community. I kept searching deeper, why was I brought to tears and this time the answer that came back from me was “I have looked into the face of God” Yes, that was at the heart of it, I was looking at possibilities, creation where it had not been before and I did not want to hold back my spontaneous response” |
| Since then, the driller returned with a temporary pump and started pumping for 24 hours so they can get a true measure of how much water per minute is expected and how quickly the aquifer recovers after pumping for 24 hours. They also collected a sample of water to take to the laboratory for testing and then a final report was prepared, a copy of which goes to Mama Dinah, a copy for the driller and a copy for the WARMA office (local government office). |
| Our final photo for this stage of things is one of Mama Dinah, her husband standing with the drilling crew of 7. |
The words of the song Nataana kauria sang as translated by Mama Dinah, who told us some words were hard to translate:
This is how the song ? was, eeee we are happy community, eeeehe, we have been carrying containers of water ? since our childhood up to our old age, walking for long distance fetching for water, eeeehe, we carried the water if the water is clear or brown, God heard our prayers,now here we are, having water from the heart of ocean, eeeehe, may God bless ? our sisters from other countries, you will live to be remembered for years,you are appreciated by my people, eeeehe God bless you ? my sisters we shall meet one day, and if not, already I have seen you all eeeehe, eeeehe,
Hand-in-Hand launched a campaign for October/November to raise the remaining money for Mama Dinah’s project. It is a very ambitious project with costs expected to be over $50,000 when all components are counted. We have already raised enough that our money combined with a fundraiser in Germany by relatives of Mama Dinah, allowed Mama Dinah to contract to drill the bore hole. The driller will cap the borehole after drilling to allow more time for raising monies for the solar pump, 2 storage towers and small distribution system. ($30,000 Canadian total estimated). Water treatment costs for desalination or other imbalances are not known yet. As this Newsletter is sent out, we have just received the water quality report and have not studied it yet.
| Annual Global Walk for Water: |
| October 14 to October 21 was the second year of the annual Global Walk and once again it was for water this year. Ambassadors contacted friends and family to pledge money for the walk. We had participation from all over the world and are very thankful for the funds raised. The campaign continues until the end of November so please hit the donate button if you would like to donate towards the solar pump, towers and distribution system. |
Water walkers in California, Canada and others whose photos we do not have in Europe. Autumn walkers and then walking the labyrinth inside the Spiritual Healing Center in Edmonton Canada area.
| Water Walking was a global experience. |
| Even small amounts donated add up and if you are fortunate enough that you can donate a larger amount of money, remember we have matching funds for up to $10,000 so that would be beyond wonderful.!! We had ambassadors for the Global Walk for Water in the UK, Ireland, Canada, US, Slovakia, Macedonia, Spain, France and many more countries coming on-line even as this is written. |
| Other Projects: |
| We have devoted most of this Newsletter to celebrate the coming of Water to Oloonkerine and the difference this is going to make to the community and the possibilities it will open for them. We have not stopped guiding and supporting our two other projects. Communication with Sister Agnes has been spotty, we know she has new eggs in the incubator and we know she has sold some broilers and has opened a fund for secondary or professional education for students who have aptitude for this.Mama Charity has been overwhelmed with the needs of the school she built in Ghana just across the border from Lome. The number of students doubled from last year and Mama Charity turns no children down even if the parents do not have the funds to pay. The school had more than 300 students now and a shortage of benches and tables for students to work and sit on. Additional teachers have been hired. All children wear uniforms and many do not get much food at home so she feeds them at school. We had hoped to establish a program for children to be sponsored and have found the system to do this is more complex than we can handle right now. We do hope by our next newsletter to have a program in place, not to sponsor individual children, but to sponsor the education of all the children. Even at this level, there are many details of accountability to be worked out so we are planning to meet with Mama Charity to work on this. Mama Charity has just returned from a trip to Accra Ghana where her mother was living. Mama Charity’s mother died in October and she has been attending to her memorial and burial. |
| Please visit us on our Facebook page and Instagram. Please consider forwarding our Newsletter to your friends and family if you know of others that may be interested. The need for water is urgent and we can all make a difference together! |
| As we have said before. Previous Newsletters can be found on our website under the Newsletter Tab: https://handinhand.space/newsletter/. |