Accompanied by WILK Board Member, Tad Yancheski, Joyce headed to Washington, DC for a Feb 9th, 2011 meeting in the offices of Ground Water & Drinking Water, a Division of the EPA in Washington, DC. This well-timed meeting was arranged by Deb Burgin, a member of The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

Preparations for her DC presentation happened during her recent visit to Atlanta where she was further enlisting the hearts and action of Atlanta residents.

Joyce’s DC presentation focused on the scientific nature of the challenges faced by WILK; Water survey techniques, the quality of the drinking water and the most prevalent problems with found water. Also discussed was the question of what level of access do people have to clean drinking water.

Did you know that people living in the Kajiado District of Kenya (the District where Joyce is living/working) have an average of an 8km (roughly 5miles) distance to the nearest clean water source?

Thankfully pathogens and microbial issues are not their most common water source problems. Instead the sheer lack of shallow water sources, requiring expensive bore holes coupled with the high probability of highly saline water are their recurrent issues.

Following her discussion, people stayed to brainstorm and ask more questions about how they could contribute their skills to assist progress for WILK and the Maasai people served by these projects.

Gains from this type of meeting with people who are actively involved in worldwide water problems come in many forms. Sharing of information & experience is particularly valuable. For example, it became clear that sourcing of current aerial photography of the area could help detect geological faults. These patterns are seen more easily from above. They help point in the direction of where water seeps into the ground and is stored in the rock fractures.

In addition to names of other qualified engineers and people on the ground Joyce gathered valuable leads and direct contacts to other NGO’s headquartered in Kenya who could be of possible assistance. EVERY warm lead is worth following.

It turns out, that the opinion of these ‘big organization’ people is that a smaller, well-run, on the ground organization like WILK can be more effective because they are more flexible, innovative and can adapt quickly.

(Contributed by Monica Tannian)

Dear Water is Life Kenya team,

You are very heartily welcomed to join us for the well commissioning ceremonies this coming weekend, Noosidan (formerly known as Angata Rongai) on Saturday, Nov. 6th and Enkorbobit, Sunday, Nov. 7th. The people of Angata Rongai changed the name of their place because of the water. Water changes it into a beautiful, liveable place, so it became Noosidan – beautiful place. The pumps have been installed and this week people started using the water.

We, together with the communities and Rotary Club of Muthaiga, have arranged for 2 days of celebrations. Leaders, Rotarians, WILK team in Kenya, community members and their neighbors, friends from Kenya Wildlife Service, the neighboring safari lodges will attend to share prayers, songs, food and dedication speeches to commemorate the official opening of these new fresh water wells and their transferral to the communities for management and benefit for the future.

You are all part of this success. What an accomplishment to bring people water and see life rolling forward with great improvements as a REAL possibility. We should not hide our light under a bushel, but tell the story, far and wide!

All best,
Joyce

Livestock as a Business: Learning about the right thing at the right time

The questions we asked the participants at the beginning of each “Livestock as a Business” seminar were:
Who has livestock? Answer: Everyone.
Who loves cows? Answer: Everyone.
Who has ever attended a seminar on livestock? Answer: No one.

The numbers of people who attended and their enthusiastic response proved that the subject matter of the Water is Life – Kenya seminar – improved livestock keeping practices which can turn livestock keeping into a profitable business – was vital and valuable to all. With the memory of each family’s losses during the 2008-2010 drought fresh in their minds, people were open to new ideas, ready to learn. With community wide livestock losses averaging 80%, it was obvious to them that current practices are not successful. Maasai are pastoralist people whose main asset is livestock and an 80% loss signifies a drastic reduction in a family’s ability to feed itself, pay school fees, let alone cover emergency expenses. We invited people to share their losses so we could acknowledge as a group the current state of affairs and use that as the starting point for suggesting improved practices that would not only reduce losses, but give them more profit as livestock businesspeople.

Mamm Jackson was the first student in class. She came all the way from Olgulului to Meshenani to hear all the lessons for the second time.

People eat their lunch to charge their batteries for the second half of the seminar.

The Ministry of Livestock teachers Bernard Karanja, Peter Mullei and Stanley Ole led lively and participatory seminars, sharing their knowledge with the community and encouraging participants to share their own knowledge and experiences. The arrangements for the workshops themselves were done by the Water if Life – Kenya team along with assistance and community mobilization from those community member who had attended the intensive opinion leaders’ seminar in Emali at the end of July.

Mr. Mullei, Ministry of Livestock Development Officer, teaching on improving practices of livestock keeping.

Those very community members were also the ones who could attest that they had seen with their own eyes that animals can survive in a drought. In the process of recording community livestock losses we also found individuals whose animals fared better during the drought. Using those 2 sets of evidence, from community members more successful at keeping their livestock to the practices of Kima Ranch, we were able to see examples of good practices. Successful practices include selling a few animals to buy food for the remaining animals, keeping smaller numbers of animals to be able to feed them, separating the bulls from the cows during the drought so that no new pregnancies occur, avoiding movement to new territories to reduce exposure to inhospitable conditions like new feed, diseases and colder weather, paying close attention to animal health and quickly treating illness with the right medicine, and buying and storing hay in the rainy season when hay is cheap so you have enough food on hand.

Sharing with each other: recording the number of animals lost in each household in the drought.

One gentleman told of migrating with his animals to Tanzania. He found grass, but it was up on hills, and his animals were too weak to climb. So he was forced to slit their throats to put them out of their misery! Imagine the pain of having to kill the animals you love. He left home with 367 and came back with 53. Another one of his neighbors from Ilmarba shared, “before the drought, I had 10 cows and after the drought I had 7”. We all assumed that 3 had died, but he said, “No, I sold three to buy hay and bran and all the remaining cows survived the drought”. Very different strategies with vastly different results! The good news is that they finally had a forum to talk about these things. They are killing the “We are powerless during the drought” myth.

Olgulului Community attend the seminar in numbers.

This community had the most losses and also the most occurrences of people employing some successful practices to counteract the drought. The seminar gave them a chance to hear from each other what worked and what don't.

An important thing we discovered is that people know when a severe drought is at hand. They know from the repeated failure of the seasonal rains, they know from the direction of the wind that blows at the start of the March, they know from the meager amount of cow dung produced by their animals and its dryness. Cow dung is the material they build and repair their houses with so they touch it daily. They observe how animals are restless at night because they’re not satisfied. They witness cows rejecting their calves to suckle because the cows are malnourished. We suggested that when women notice these things it’s a very good time to talk to their husbands about making some preparations like selling cows, buying additional food. The Ministry of Livestock teachers advised, ”That’s the time you cook your husband a nice dinner and say, “Honey, you know I was thinking…”

In each location everyone loved the idea of bigger, more beautiful cows.
Improved breeds mean quicker maturity rates and bigger body size. Upgrading their breeds was on everyone’s action list. Keeping fewer, better stock means they can reduce the number of animals they have to care for but increase the value of their herd. Smaller herds also reduces the number of animals drinking water and eating grass in a given area, leading to improved natural resource management, which is also a good drought management technique.

The new set of warriors and the older generation attend the livestock seminar in Amboseli.

Better, healthier stock and active disease prevention will result in healthier animals which are easier to sell and are hardier during a drought. They want to improve their breeds so they have a better product for the market which can compete with other farmers. Instead of their animals being left to the end of the market because they’re small, they’ll be among the first to be sold, at a good price.

Building a cattle dip is another crucial step in improved livestock health, since majority of diseases are tick- borne. The communities of Meshenani and Olgulului put this on their list of actions to take within the next few months. The current method they employ is spraying. The teachers were saying “when you spray and there’s a wind blowing most of the medicine falls to the ground instead of on your animals. More than that, ticks are all over the body, not just on top, so even if all the medicine lands on the animal you’re not getting the problem areas effectively because you’re not getting the sides or underneath the body.” A cattle dip will address that problem. One necessary ingredient for a successful cattle dip is access to water, and since WILK helped Meshenani get water by installing a piped water connection, they now can engage in so many helpful activities, like building a cattle dip and planting a vegetable garden.

The Ministry of Livestock teachers also strongly recommended uniting as a group and appealing to their elected councilor to bringing up the issue of getting a livestock scale for the livestock market. All the livestock markets are run the by local County Councils. Each livestock sale is taxed. The income from that tax is for the upkeep of the market. but all agreed that the conditions of the markets are poor. The teachers said “fight for your rights!” The current way of selling is agreement on the price between seller and buyer by visual estimation. The seller suggest it’s about 200 kg’s but the buyer says, you’re nuts, its not more than 175 kg, finally the seller gives in by agreeing it’s 180. Plenty of room for exploitation there! With the installation of a scale and by learning how to access information on the prices of livestock at the different local markets people will be far less likely to be exploited.

Again and again, it’s so clear that the critical role Water is Life – Kenya plays because we stay close to the community through our water projects and working with Womens Beading Groups and can see the needs both expressed and unexpressed, is to facilitate, to bring resources, like the highly trained people from the Ministry of Livestock, to communities that need information. In the case of this livestock seminars people have been doing the same thing for years and years and maybe it wouldn’t have occurred to them to reconsider their strategy. But for me, with an outside eye, it seemed people could benefit from exposure to some new ideas, and then choose for themselves what to do – use the new info or not!

As we wrapped up the meeting at our final location of Meshenani, the community elder thanked us for coming and said “No one will be able to sleep tonight for thinking about all the wonderful things we’ve learned today.”

Last week we kicked off our first ever “Livestock as a Business” Workshop. We invited a small group of community opinion leaders from Olgulului, Meshenani, Enkong’u Narok and Ilmarba, to come to our 3-day workshop. We invited experts from the Government of Kenya’s Ministry of Livestock to teach on the subjects of improved livestock breeds, diversification of types of animals, disease prevention and treatment, drought mitigation, pasture management and haymaking, marketing techniques and value addition.

Mr Mullei, Ministry of Livestock Officer, standing by to record the workshop participants’ action plan.

Admiring the breeds of cows at Kima Ranch

Workshop Participants listening to the overseer of Kima Ranch.

We also arranged for the whole group to visit a commercial ranch, called Kima Ranch, where they could see many of the things taught being put into practice, including cross breeding, hay and silage making, and artificial insemination to improve the stock. Our strategy, our hope, was that this would become the core group of teachers who would then take the information they learned and teach people at workshops in their home communities.

Jacob Ole Saei amazed by the amount of hay Kima Ranch keeps.

This workshop came as a response to the drought crisis of the past 2 and a half years. During the Kenyan drought of 2008-2010 pastoralist families lost 80-90% of their livestock. In the Maasai community, people keep livestock, but usually it’s culture, not business, and thus people do what they’ve been doing for years. In a serious drought, they migrate long distances in search of water and pasture when the grass close to home is gone, weakening the animals and exposing them to new diseases and climates along the way. The tragedy of the drought, the loss of assets to families, and the hunger and poverty that result, is so extreme because few people sell their animals when they’re sellable. Animals become walking skeletons, finally dropping dead when hunger, sickness and exhaustion become too much. One after another, carcass after carcass. If you have ever experienced it, if you’ve ever SMELLED it, you can never forget it. With the death of their livestock, men break under the pressure, some even dying of heartbreak, and families lose the only support they have.

Last year, during the peak of the drought’s devastation, WILK tried to mobilize help to the region by publicizing the severity of the drought, raising money to support school lunch feeding programs so at least children could have lunch at school. We also thought that what might help, when the situation improved, was teaching people how to handle their cattle as a business investment. This means keeping an eye on the value of their assets, their livestock, so that if they saw the weather situation was worsening, they could sell their animals and keep the cash to invest in something else, or bank the money to buy more cows when the drought ends.

As the organizers who came up with the idea of doing this workshop, we hoped to do something useful. At worst, the workshop participants would have an adventure, spend a few nights in a new place, eat meals cooked by someone else. But what we came up with was successful beyond our expectation.

One of the reasons the workshop struck gold is that it was small, lively and involving, with teachers who really knew their subjects and very interested participants. We designed a participatory workshop where everyone shared their current livestock rearing and marketing practices, as well as their losses during the drought. It was a valuable, if painful, exercise to have each person state their losses so that the reality of the situation would be evident to all. We calculated the combined value of lost livestock of our small group of participants and it was more than $150,000! The tragedy is that some of the loss is preventable. Keeping fewer, better animals, storing food for hard times, knowing how to prevent and treat diseases, these are concrete actions that can make a difference. A change in attitude and behavior can have dramatic results in preventing such losses in the future. People really recognized that. Hopefully, the workshops will be a great catalyst for change.

Group 3 working on their assignment.

Nelson Tinayo, giving Group 3’s recommendations of how to teach the community.

We administered questionnaires to the participants and found that no person, except one, had ever been to a workshop on livestock before, including the government appointed senior chiefs. Imagine all the money spent on food relief during a drought, but so few resources go to teaching about preventative measures to take before the drought hits!

When the groups returned to their homes, they immediately told all their neighbors what a great workshop it was and how much they’d learned. Those who weren’t part of it complained, “why weren’t we invited? We needed to be there”. Livestock is life in Maasailand. It has been the center of culture and life for centuries, but the way of life is under extreme pressure with severe droughts in the last 5 years and other political factors, like land subdivision, at play. Community members were happy to hear that there will be follow up workshops so that they can all have access to the knowledge which can help them. We will then support the formation of small groups who will target one or two activities they want to try: buying improved breeds, making hay or silage, pasture management, buying new kinds of livestock like chicken, camels or fish farming.

Workshop Participants looking at the fishpond where tilapia will be raised. One of the participants said he will be the first to start this at his home.

Jacob, one of the workshop participants, called to tell me that he had just bought his first camel. He is ready to lead the change, so his neighbors can see his example. At the workshop people learned that camels do well during drought, they keep producing milk and their market value doesn’t drop. People who had camels still had camels after the drought was over, while their neighbors suffered heavy losses. It pays to diversify! The teachers said, if what you love is cows, keep camels for business, then use the cash from selling them to buy a few good cows.

We know that, through hard work and inspiration, we did something good. Everyone is hungry for this information. During our visit to Kima Ranch, several people came up to me and said, “we’ve never seen anything like this, thanks for showing us, we really need to improve our way of keeping animals”. Our work was bearing fruit beyond our dreams. Now we will continue to teach and implement and support people in putting into practice what they’ve learned. Hopefully, we’ll be seeing more people with improved breeds, more people storing food for their animals, more diversity in types of livestock they keep. These things will become the way of life that allows them to successfully overcome future droughts and other challenges.

Each Participant received a certificate.

Written by Joyce Tannian

www.kenyawaterislife.com

Ilmarba Primary School – Rainwater Harvesting Project, Completed February, 2010

WILK paid for supplies and a contractor to set up water storage tanks, gutters and downspouts to collect the rainwater on 2 large classroom buildings at Ilmarba Primary School. Water is now being collected from the rains and is being used by over 300 students and teachers at the school. Rainwater is free and, until WILK’s project, unused! The school has over 100 boarders and 8 teachers living on site, who need a lot of water because they eat all their meals, wash themselves and their clothes at the school. This is a big water burden on the school. There is a community borehole but it is not so close to the school. The area is full of wild animals like lions, elephant, zebras, gazelles so it’s not always safe. Now, with water in tanks on the school grounds, it is easier, faster and safer. It also reduces the burden on the borehole and the amount of money spent on diesel.

I know I’ve already shared this with some of you, but it’s worth sharing again. I can’t tell you how much my heart filled the other day at the community meeting when the people of Imisigio told me about their borehole. Last October, in what were, thank God, the last months of a hideous and devastating drought, Imisigio people used the borehole water to do bucket irrigation to start their tomato plants. At the end of November the rains came to add to their efforts, and now, those who had used the borehole water succeeded in reaping a great harvest. If you look at the faces of those people now, you see joy and success and hope. What a huge contrast to the desperation and hopelessness of September!

This is what our work has accomplished.

With gratitude to you all!
Joyce

I just wanted to share some REALLY GOOD NEWS with everyone.

At our meeting in Imisigio (first borehole site) on Wednesday, April 14, we asked how things were going at the borehole. Several people reported that last October, at the tail end of the hideous drought with no rain in sight, people carried water from the borehole to their fields and used it to plant tomatoes. They have gotten great harvests and are recovering from their losses of the last years of drought! They are really happy AND are very enthusiastic for using the water at the borehole site to do irrigation.

If we had tried to start the irrigation project before they had had their own success, it would have been much tougher to begin! They also talked about buying a mill to grind their maize into flour – the staple here is ugali – heavy cornmeal polenta – and the maize is high in the fields right now. Really gorgeous and tall and green in every direction you look.

They are really excited to have a visit from the local agricultural officer who will help with the project so they can learn about irrigation techniques. The community plans to start clearing the land next week. I have already met with the Ag officers in Loitokitok and we are scheduling their visit.

Everything we have been working toward, all the work that we all do – this success in Imisigio is the result – real life changes, real improvements, real development.

Thanks to all of you!!!

Joyce

Here is an article about WILK in an interview of me written by Mary Welch, writer for Womenetics, an online women’s magazine.  She sent me a list of questions which I answered for her in this article.  The interview was arranged by Monica Tannian.  She met Mary Welch in Atlanta and, in Monica’s inimitable way, she made sure it happened.

We put the link to the article on our website (here and on our News page).

Love,

Joyce

You were there…all of you who have cared to support Water Is Life – Kenya. You were with us this past August at the Imisigyio Well site for the dedication and celebration for the fresh water this well brings to thousands of people everyday.

We drove for hours through the semi arid, dusty, parched earth savannas across Amboseli National Park. We passed elephant, hyena, giraffe, zebra, up terrain that seemed impossible to travel on even for our 12 seat Toyota Land Cruiser. Except for us there were no people in site.

Up we drove across crevassed trails carved deep into the earth by empty riverbanks where rains haven’t fallen in what seemed an eternity. We asked how could people live in such a difficult environment?

Up still steeper our land cruiser climbed only minutes from Imisigyio. We were greeted by another jeep full of Maasai going to the celebration whose axel broke from the rough terrain. We all got out and walked as the drivers worked to pull the jeep the rest of the way into the village of Imisigyio.

As we hiked through the scrub brush and inches deep chalky, trails we were greeted by the voices of hundreds, of Maasai women and children running toward us to welcome us singing, smiling, waving.
Again, you too were there with us.

Up ahead colored cloth made up a makeshift quillwork Thank-You tent and stage. It was dressed for the celebration with all these dear people had, all to say “Thank you”.

We were greeted with speeches Praising God and Thanking all of us who gave to put this well, pump, pump house and tank system in place. Seven choirs came from each of the churches with voices lifted up thanking God for the kindness of the Imisigyio well! They sang songs including one called, “Water Is Life”. Children danced and smiled and giggled, thanking us all from Water Is Life for Joyce and for all the work we did together. It was truly one of the most beautiful, honest, human expressions of thanks I have ever witnessed!

They fed us, again sharing all they had. From so little, they gave so much! Ugali a sort of oatmeal like dish made from crushed corn and goat and crates of warm coke… it was delicious as it was full of love and thanksgiving!

Because of the water the Imisigyio well brings life can go forward. Thousands of lives are forever changed for the better and in your name we were there to share this day. Thank you for continuing to touch the lives of so many!

Mark Manniso

Go to Kenya! To get a true sense of what Water is Life-Kenya and Joyce are doing you need to have been there. Mark Manniso and I did just that this past August.

Getting through Customs in Nairobi, we were greeted by Joyce and three Kenyan friends. Next, we drove south for 50 minutes to Kitengela where she lives. The first night Mark and I stayed in a little motel. Out front was a locked metal gate. A guard sat over the motel water tank all night. After breakfast we shopped in Kitengela for provisions to cover our four-day stay down at the Amboseli Camp. Crowds of people of all ages, dust, cows, goats, traffic of bikes, cars, big trucks and clutter filled the streets.

After driving south for 2 hours, we arrived in Namanga. Here our first of 3 blown tires was fixed. Roast goat was lunch. Then, off to Amboseli 3 hours away on rocky, dirt roads. Thousands of Maasai are in this region. The people live in “boma” (huts) inside low-slung “kraal”, shrub and tree circles that keep out major animals. There are no centers or villages, every now and then a school. The Maasai choose to live apart in remote areas across which they wander to feed their beloved cows and goats. This sprawling spatial area without paved roads and no electricity has always been semi-arid. Life and nature here creates costs and challenges for Joyce and the WILK mission.

At the Amboseli Park campsite we slept in tents. Baboons, lions, elephants, zebra, snakes, a full assortment of world-class wildlife, are your day/night nearby neighbors.
The young Maasai men, who manage the camp, cooked the food we brought. Streams of stars at night by the campfire. The Villanova people brought marshmallows to toast! From this base we bounced/crawled over to the Imisigyio well Ceremony. The Land Cruiser (4X4) ahead of us got hung up on the rocky road. We had our second flat tire. Access within this area is most difficult, even for safari vehicles! The Maasai walk or run many miles per week. The only way the big drilling rig could get to Imisigyio was around through Tanzania!

Meshenani lies roughly 14 miles north from our tent camp. The Villanova team met with the people there exploring concrete ways they could raise income and organize herd sizes to fit with vegetation and weather. Bernard Tulito is organizing the community into three groups. In the Villanaova plan each initiative taken, such as raising handcraft sales or building a curio shop, will be accompanied by performance measures.

For some time WILK has provided income to women who make beaded products. Joyce, Mark and I visited Jacinta’s home. She is the lady who organizes, designs and sells handcrafts. Sales in the US support these women along with water projects. Jacinta discussed new items, new colors and future products for Christmas and group sales. To broaden their income potential Joyce brought six women from Meshenani (4 hours one-way) to spend a week with Jacinta. They were delighted to get diplomas after learning to improve skills and make new products.

Back in the Nairobi region we met with Mark Meassick, a US AID program officer. He said finances for programs like ours is limited by prior commitments fixed by Congress. His advice on many topics was most helpful. We also visited senior Kenyan Wildlife Service (KWS) officials. KWS manages large areas of land/water in the areas where WILK is working. Resources use conflicts between the Maasai are frequent. Over lunch we met Dr. Albert Mumma, professor of Water Law at the University of Nairobi. He agreed to work for us, starting with the legal papers to register WILK as an NGO in Kenya.

Aside from attending a concert where Joyce sang and a Sunday picnic in the Rift Valley, this was a run, run, run working-visit. We gained potentially important and direct contact with several officials and agencies; along with a realistic glimpse of the people and extensive area where Joyce brings assistance day after day. This direct contact makes clear that, together, our months of effort help many hundreds of needy people. Building relationships in one needy local area after another is the key.

Through the persistence of Joyce… and help from many people, like you, much more can and will be done.

Francis Tannian