Page 22 - Gifts of Hope Catalog 2021

GIFTS OF HOPE MARKET
online: december 4 & 5, 2021 / 22
In-person: december 5, 2021

WATER COMES TO LIFE

kitui, kenya

to learn more: krockwell1@unl.edu

Regional community water wells are often located far from the family homes near Kitui,
Kenya. Shadrack Matuku Musyoka, a friend of First Lutheran Church, and First Lutheran

member Kay Rockwell are collaborating on a solution.
Musyoka and Rockwell first connected in 2011 when Rockwell volunteered in the U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s Farmer-to-Farmer Program. The pair worked together on a

project designed to provide goats that enable families, which include children orphaned by
HIV-AIDS, to build sustainable futures for themselves in Voo, Kenya. Musyoka served as a
monitoring and evaluation officer for the program.

Their newest project focuses on collecting rainwater in
rural Kitui. Usual methods of harvesting rainwater
from gutters or a roofline are not suitable when 30% of
the population live in domed thatched grass dwellings.

While there are community water wells where
families can get water and take it home, these

are spread throughout the region and may be a
rather lengthy distance from homesteads.