We are getting close to our summer youth trip!
We will be taking a group of eight high school students to Kenya in a couple of months. The group has been training, studying and working hard at fundraising since last July. The primary focus is on building relationships and giving the students the experience to see first-hand how different life is for most people who live outside the western world. We won’t just be sight-seeing, we will be partnering with the locals and working on established MOM projects in three areas: clean water development, health and hygiene training and kids ministry.
Our students will be helping to lay a pipeline that will run about 1 km from a developed spring to a primary school near the town of Nkoilale. We visited the Saaten school last November and met with the head teacher, Lucy who puts all of herself into growing and improving the school for the benefit of the 150 local Maasai children who attend. In Kenya, children must pay tuition at public schools to help offset the costs of running the school. The government pays the head teacher’s salary and the school is responsible for all the other costs. Lucy uses much of her income as head teacher to offset the shortfall of paying the school’s two other teachers, guard and buying materials. The school has now been open for four years but has no running water. Students must fetch water for the school and carry it with them each day. A source of clean water on-site is so important for good health and sanitation. Without it the students are unable to wash their hands and faces and drink contaminated water from the closest source. “Many of the children are absent each day due to stomach illness from the water they are drinking here,” Lucy laments.
Community and parent meetings have been held at the school and the parents have committed to help dig the pipeline alongside our Youth to Kenya group. It will be an unforgettable experience for the students as they literally “dig in” and help the community improve life for their children.
Our goal is to raise $1500 to buy plumbing and masonry materials to complete the pipeline and install taps to dispense the water. Would you partner with us? You can contribute at: montanaonamission.org/donate
