Clean water for Our Lady of Mt. Carmel or Kamuyine school in Kenya!

The community of Mikinduri looks lush and beautiful. It’s as though God made it just for growing bananas and papayas. 

But the people are not thriving as well. Most families in Mikinduri, Kenya, are smallholder farmers, relying on rain-fed agriculture for their livelihoods and daily diets. Weather patterns are changing, and that’s affecting harvests. Food insecurity is widespread. 

Three elementary schools are feeling this the most: Kamuyine Public School, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Primary, and Akaiga Primary. More than 1500 children attend one of these three schools every day. 

There is no water connection at Mt. Carmel, nor in the surrounding village. Akaiga Primary is not connected to any water source and relies on rainfall. Washing, drinking, cooking, and irrigating their farm all depend on harvesting water during the rainy season. Likewise, Kamuyine’s main source of water is rainfall, too. 

During the long dry seasons, children must either carry water from home for drinking, or wait until the end of the school day to get a drink at home. The chore of fetching water falls disproportionately to girls and women, taking them away from their studies or livelihoods. 

 And the dry seasons are getting longer. 

“With the recent changes in climate there’s a prolonged drought,” says Mr. Ogolla, a county official, “the local people are facing starvation and a huge water crisis – with the schools being the most affected.” 

“There’s a looming health hazard to the whole community especially the school-going children.” 

The water they collect from ponds and rivers isn’t safe, and the schools aren’t able to keep sanitary facilities. Children cannot wash their hands properly. As a result, the teachers are seeing a steep rise in absenteeism because the children are sick with waterborne illnesses such as dysentery, cholera and typhoid. These diseases can be recurrent and require costly medication. The children’s health suffers, as do their grades, and their parents struggle to afford the necessary medicine. 

In response to this crisis, Chalice and the Mikinduri sponsor site are drilling borehole wells at each school. Their solar-powered pumps will pipe water to several access points for the students, staff, and families.  

The community-based wells will be used for household and school needs as well as small-scale irrigation farming to grow vegetables and food crops. With a reliable source of water, the communities will be able to cultivate their lands year-round. These lands have great potential to be highly productive, and the families can prosper.   

This noble project will help the schools retain children in school and also offer a source of water for the communities,” says Fr. Lucas, the local pastor. 

“Thank you for your continued support of our community.” 

You can support the borehole well at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel or Kamuyine today! 

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An entrepreneurship gift creates opportunities

At all our sites there are entrepreneurial souls waiting to take the first step towards building their own business. Those first steps often start to happen when parents or guardians join Chalice family circles. During their meeting they start to get trained on in demand skills that will open the doors of opportunities. When a parents are able to open a small business, they start to generate income and provide more support to their families. 

Our Meru site’s parents were prepared to start their own business, they already had experience in farming- the just needed business training. At Meru site, parents are predominantly farmers – so the gifts of animals, tools, and agricultural training are invaluable gifts from the Chalice Gift Catalogue.

Parents from 30 Chalice family circles in the Meru site were able to start group businesses thanks to catalogue gifts. These new collective enterprises will be in areas such as poultry, goat, pig, or sheep farming, vegetable gardens, and fruit nurseries.

The parents are experts around a farm- business management, on the other hand, is less familiar. So, the Meru site staff wanted to prepare them before they embarked on their lives as entrepreneurs.

Partnering with local groups and a technical college, the site staff arranged a training day for all the parents in the 30 family circles.

The facilitator ran through all the foundational concepts: establishing their collective goals as a group and creating a plan and guidelines to get there. He also helped them understand how to layout and manage their project’s budget.

The members of the groups understand that they will reinvest some of their earnings back into their group kitty, ensuring the project is sustainable.

“All the group members were very happy after getting an enriched, enlightened training from the facilitators,” writes Sr. Rosemary, Meru site director.

The groups each received a small amount of seed capital through Chalice.

“They were very grateful,” Sr. Rosemary says. “It was a motivation for the groups.”

The groups each met with Chalice staff and discussed their plans and ideas. Everyone was ready to start their exciting new ventures. 

 

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Full Arms and Full Hearts for Issahaika’s Family

Issahaika’s family found themselves putting together their grocery list but then having to cross off certain items. They needed to prioritize what was most essential for their family, since they have limited funds. They figured out ways to make do, but often even the necessities were skipped 

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Bicycles for Asembo

Oh what fun it is to ride! Children are reaching destinations and milestones with the help of their new bicycle. Children in our Asembo site, Kenya, are thrilled to have a new way of transportation for students to get to school. You can give a child a bicycle through our gift catalogue. A bike makes the daily trip to school much faster, easier, and safer. A bicycle is a gift that does far more than simply getting from point A to point B.  

Kenya asembo bicycles girls students uniform smile gift catalogue

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Kodogo opens a clothing store for her children’s future

Kadogo, a single mother of two lives near our Mombasa site in Kenya, makes the most out of every opportunity to take care of her children.    

Strong and resilient Kadogo went out every day to get laundry work in her neighborhood. That way, she could provide for her children’s needs. Despite her efforts, she struggled to make rent, and their landlord evicted the family. Things were becoming dire, that is until one of her children was sponsored! 

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Facing war trauma in Ukraine with support from a Chalice program

Nadiya is a sixteen-year-old sponsored girl in our Ternopil site, Ukraine. She lives with her two brothers and her parents. As the conflict continues in their country, our site has developed a program called Family Resilience in Conditions of War and Post-War. In this program families, like Nadiya’s, are finding solace and support part in. 

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The Gift that Can’t Wait

Through the ‘While We Wait’ fund, the child and their family can begin participating in the program from the moment they’re enrolled.

Philippines samar family mum baby

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Beatriz makes her wooden house into a brick home in Paraguay

At Chalice Pukavy site, Paraguay, many families live in poor living conditions and lack basic necessities. For larger single-parent families, it’s even more challenging. Living near Pukavy is Beatriz, a mother of three daughters who also lives with her brother and mother.

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Ponciana is cured from a tumor thanks to the Critical Needs fund

Ponciana is the mother of five children and currently lives alone with her youngest daughter, María Nicol, who is sponsored through our Yapacani site in Bolivia. Ponciana has been experiencing headaches for several years, but in July, the pain became unbearable.  

Bolivia Yapacani Ponciana doctor check up critical needs

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