Every day women and children spend 200 million hours fetching and collecting water. This is time that could be spent on income generating activities, domestic chores, and education for children.
Before the tank installation, John Koech, a retired teacher from Leldaet, Bomet County shares it was difficult to go fetch water that was not necessarily clean from the river which was 3 kilometers away. Further, they could only carry 20 liters jerrycans which could end up being 3 trips in a day.
Understandably, from the moment families from Koech’s village started receiving the tanks, there was widespread hope that people would no longer spent tiresome hours collecting inadequate water. For this reason, Koech requests that the Tekelbei Foundation to continue reaching out to especially the elderly in society because of the positive impact.
Sharon Langat, a Blugam resident says,”Before we received the tanks, life was too hard. We went for long distances searching for clean water. We also consumed a lot of time queuing lines to fetch water from the river.” Now life is easier thanks to the tanks allowing her and her neighbors to spend more time at home doing chores, taking care of livestock, and going to the farm.
Sharon’s parting words is for the foundation to keep expanding their support to even more people.
Lawrence Kiprono from Tendonok, reveals that the activity of looking for water was difficult due to the rough terrain. This is especially during the drought seasons but with the tanks it was easier and faster to collect water.
Kiprono is thankful for how the availability of a tank at his home improved his life. He also urges everyone to have the spirit of giving and helping each other.
Naomi Ngeno from Chororoita shares, “I was not very happy during the time when I didn’t have a tank. The process of getting water was too long and there was a lot of congestion just to get water to drink.”
Now she is glad she has clean water and time for other things. The water collected in the tank enables her to use it for everything at home.
Tekelbei Foundation is a non-profit that’s duly registered in Kenya and whose aim is ensuring everyone has access to water by 2030. Our mission is to promote socio-economic prosperity for marginalized and vulnerable members of the community by providing access to safe, clean drinking water.