A Voice Is Heard

We hit water! Thank you for all our donors support! Next up, solar power! The Ildonyioo Village / Imisigiyo Community is so happy to have access to clean water.

It’s time to drill! Thanks to the generous support of our donors and our partnership with Kaijado County Government, we are getting ready to bring clean water to communities in Kenya. Over the years our water projects have supported thousands of families. Follow along over the next few months as we share stories from the field. Interested in being a part of the impact? Make a donation at http://www.avoiceisheard.org

Update on our Emergency Food Relief Project: Parts of Kenya are in a 40 year drought causing severe conditions, leaving people suffering and animals dying. The young and elderly are most vulnerable.

In a few weeks our team raised $17,500 to bring maize, beans, porridge, cooking oil and sugar to the Amboseli region.

We found that many students weren’t attending classes and families had very little food in their homes.

Our team arrived last week and with help from volunteers we delivered supplies to more than 22 schools across the region and feed over 10,000 people.

Our relief effort provides meals for 45 days as we wait for the rains to arrive.

We are so thankful for our donors who moved quickly and helped provide support during a time when people are suffering.

The communities are so grateful.

Big news! It has been a while since we have made updates on our recent projects. We had opened the Ilmarba Solar Borehole Project last year with more improvements beginning in the coming weeks. Clean drinking water powered by solar is flowing and a cement storage tank is finally beginning construction with our government partnership. We visited the ground last week to assess first hand the elephant conflict issues in the area and check on the project. We are pleased that the water committee has registered with the county and created a bank account to help with their own maintenance costs. We were given all registrations and an extensive list of borehole users. Over 1500 people and over 1000 animals have fresh drinking water.

Our next steps will be to place piping access from the tank directly into the surrounding communities. This will insure the safety for women and children from animal conflict and reduce the walking distance. The Ilmarba community will partner with us to excavate the ground to help prepare for the installation of materials. We are grateful for our donors who help each step of the way in our mission to help families have clean and safe drinking water.

A number of years ago we drilled a borehole with the Indepen community and they have done an excellent job of keeping it maintained. We make periodic checks to make sure our boreholes are operable. With Covid essentially shutting down areas of Kenya they struggled for over a year with a broken pump leaving woman and girls walking further for access to drinking water. We recently partnered with them to restore the pump with a 50% contribution. They raised the other half themselves and we brought in water experts last week to fix the problems. Water is now flowing again for more than 1000 people in the area.

We are pleased to announce water is flowing at Ilmarba in Amboseli, Kenya thanks to the partnership with the community and our donors. Over 1500 people are now benefiting from a solar powered pump, cement storage tank to come and water points for easy access to clean, safe drinking water.

Oldule worked hand in hand with us by contributing a portion of the costs, including a cement storage tank through community funds to secure water in their area.

Two million additional cases of female ge***al mutilation could occur over the next decade due to Covid. The pandemic left many girls more vulnerable to this practice with shuttered schools and lack of program resources. We stand with the UN, the world, and our girls to help eradicate FGM. Over the years AVIH found alternative ways to celebration “Coming of Age” without the cut and giving girls in Maasai communities a voice. Today is “The International Day Of Zero Tolerance For Female Ge***al Mutilation.” Let us not forget our girls around the world and bring awareness to create change against this violation of girls’ and women’s health and human rights.

We are in Nairobi, Kenya standing with you against racism, social injustice and oppression. We continue our commitment in using our voice to help bring change.

Our borehole is a success and we are so grateful for the team who have joined us in raising funds to bring clean drinking water to Maasai Communities. Over 500 people and their livestock will benefit from this project.

Our drilling trucks have arrived at our next borehole site. Clean water is only days away.