Project
Water for Nasaruni Girls – 2024
Project Complete!
For over 10 years, Nasaruni has been nurturing girls from the surrounding and far-reaching rural villages. They have grown to graduate from primary school, and now we built a high school so that they can keep to school. Parents have come to truly embrace the education at Nasaruni because it supports their cultural values and traditions in so many tangible and real ways. Nasaruni girls celebrate Maasai culture through dance, language, beadwork, food, and folktales. Most importantly, the parents in the community chose the values of the school themselves so that they trust Nasaruni to raise their daughters. Nasaruni Academy is helping girls and their families to write a new future full of hope, health, empowerment and success. Started by a local Maasai woman and her husband, the Academy and Secondary School are providing a chance for education to over 200 girls currently.
Nasaruni Academy is situated 9km west of Narok, in the southwestern region of Kenya. According to Moses Sayo, School Director, the Nasaruni community is predominantly Maasai, who are pastoralists with some sporadic practice of small-scale farming. The area surrounding the school consists of approximately 7000 families. Some of the main challenges faced include the illiteracy rates and poverty.
If you come to Narok and turn down a dusty, pot-holed road outside of town, you will travel 1 kilometer past ramshackle sheds and smiling shop clerks… to find a magical place where dreams come true, laughter and serious study unite. Here, girls are nourished, educated, and thoroughly transformed as they grow into young women of purpose and confidence in the Maasai community. Welcome to Nasaruni Academy for Maasai Girls in Narok, Kenya!
If you come to Narok and turn down a dusty, pot-holed road outside of town, you will travel 1 kilometer past ramshackle sheds and smiling shop clerks… to find a magical place where dreams come true, laughter and serious study unite. Here, girls are nourished, educated, and thoroughly transformed as they grow into young women of purpose and confidence in the Maasai community. Welcome to Nasaruni Academy for Maasai Girls in Narok, Kenya!
The students at Nasaruni need fresh water to drink. H2O for Life schools have generously donated a pump for the borehole, but that water is not drinkable and is only used for showers and washing. Potable water is currently being purchased for the school and trucked in from far distances. This expense is unsustainable and unrealistic given the severe rains that are plummeting the area. This water is literally running off the roofs and being wasted. The few old gutter systems installed years ago have mostly rusted and become dysfunctional. Many new buildings have been built requiring new installation of the modern type of plastic gutters that do not rust.
All the rest of the buildings in the compound could be harvesting fresh rainwater, which is entirely drinkable once funneled into large black holding tanks where it settles and fresh water is tapped out for the girls. This will also allow them to access fresh water at many locations around the school for both the primary and the secondary schools, rather than only one faucet serving over 200 girls, as is currently the case with the delivered water.
Project proposal: New gutter systems installed which will fill 4 new poly water tanks.
H2O for Life is not a WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) project implementer. We have partnerships with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) implementing WASH in Schools projects around the world. Our NGO partners match funds needed for each school project. We also have a generous donor that provides us with an interest-free loan that, along with matching funds, allows for many projects to be started or possibly even completed before total funds have been raised. In rare situations we reserve the right to reallocate funds to alternate project(s).
Questions? Ask us at 651-756-7577 or info@h2oforlifeschools.org.
