A Special Family

There is a special family in Nkineje who we really want you to meet. David and Noomali have invested for years in their community.  They are the type of neighbors we all wish we had. Their door is always open and they will welcome you with a cup of tea and a smile. They have shared their pasture with struggling neighbors whose cows are out of grass or shared their milk with a family in need. David serves as a lay pastor at their village church and is a strong positive role model for the young men in the area.

Last year David, Noomali and their family welcomed Josh and I into their home.  For nearly two weeks they hosted us. We worked together, cooked together, ate together and got to really share life together.  They set up a special space for us to sleep, just next to their house. We shared tea in the morning and dinner and stories in the evening.

David and Noomali have been married for nearly twenty years. They make their home among the dry hills north of the Tanzanian border raising cattle, goats and sheep, as the Maasai people have done throughout their history. David’s family have lived on this land for more than 120 years. Water is their most precious natural resource – but it’s scarce. Kenya has experienced a prolonged drought with little rain to nourish the vegetation and renew the rivers and springs.

We first met David while working on a spring development project in February of 2016.  David was at the project volunteering his time even though the spring was not in his neighborhood. He continued to come each day until the project was finished.  We were so impressed by his generous nature, work-ethic and integrity that we later asked David to come to work for MOM as the regional manger in Kenya. He has been the managing the projects in Narok county and travels weekly to check in on all the MOM water projects and meet with the communities.

David and Noomali have five children.  The oldest is a daughter, 17 and the youngest is a son who is 3. David highly values education and works very hard to make sure his children have the opportunity to go to school. He was the only one of his 19 brothers and sisters to attend school and he recognizes the advantages it has given him.

As in much of Africa, Noomali and her daughters, along with the other women must spend much of their time walking for the water their families need. They fetch water from a spring or the river for cooking, drinking and washing. The livestock must also walk to water to get a drink once a day. The source Noomali walks to is over a mile and a half from their home. When it is dry or too crowded there she must walk another mile north to a small river to fetch water. When she gets there she waits her turn and fills her 20L jerry can, hoists it onto her back and hikes the distance back to her home carrying the 40 pounds of water. Some women have to walk even farther for water. When they meet dangerous wildlife, such as elephants or buffalo along the way they have to turn around and try a different location. Sometimes they don’t get water at all.

We have the chance to improve the circumstances of this family and 600-1000 others by bringing clean water closer to their homes and serving the surrounding community

MOM has been working with a volunteer Kenyan engineer to plan a spring development project in Nkineje which includes – a large water storage tank, four water fetching access points and two sets of livestock troughs along the roughly two miles of pipeline. The total cost for this project is $17,500. An incredibly generous donor has offered to match up to 50% of the project cost…$8750!

Our goal is to fully meet the match by January 1^st, 2018.

Will you take this opportunity to change the lives of families? Through December 31^st your gift will be doubled and go a long, long way to improving the health and lifestyle of families; families who have the same basic needs as yours and mine.