Starfish Charities: Tanks and Toilets!

New projects for this year include Tanks and Toilets! For those of you who live in developed countries around the world, the title of this post may seem strange. But for people living in Kenya these two things can have a huge impact on health and hygiene. We have targeted four Maasai churches to be the recipients of Tanks and Toilets this year. One of those churches is in Oreteti. This is a church we have worked with for many years. The first time I met with the people of this community their church was under a tree and we simply called it the Tree Church.

This was a great place to start a church due to its proximity to a very popular water well in the area. Unfortunately one year the rains were so heavy it flooded the whole valley, including the water well, generator, etc. The water eventually receded and the well restored, but the community decided it was time to move the church to higher ground. A man in the church donated land and a new building was built. The picture above was in 2010 at a literacy class we held there. The picture below was last year after we gave the Academy these cute tables and chairs.

The current pastor of this church began an Academy a few years ago. Academies (nursery schools) are becoming more popular among these small churches due to the large population of small children who are too young to walk the distances required to reach the public schools. However, they start with very little and need our help to move them along. It is a wonderful opportunity to give them Bible-based curriculum to lay a solid foundation for these young children, and help with other items such as water tanks and well-built out door toilets.

Another ministry provided this tank for them a few years ago. You can see the pipe running into the top of the tank. That is attached to the guttering on the tin roof of the church building. Just this year, they were able to pipe water directly from the water well under the trees to the tank, thus providing them with clean water.

They began building an outdoor toilet, but ran out of funds and this is as far as it got! When I visit there, I have to bring a cloth with me and have a female partner cover the opening while I do my business. I am not sure what they do, but they need help.

We bought supplies and were on our way to get the job done.

The church members were so excited when we arrived with the materials.

Everyone pitched in to get that truck unloaded.

This is the official handover of the materials to Pastor Emmanuel.

And again!

I checked in on the progress a week later and found the toilet half finished. In this area there are stones all over the ground. The children from the Academy, as well as the adults from the church collected stones and river sand to add to the other materials we bought. Just by using the local -- and free -- resources, we saved several hundred dollars in construction costs.

These are some of the children from the Academy, along with the pastor, the school chairman, one of my board members, and on the far right, Pastor Elijah, who will be the recipient of the next Tank and Toilet. He was very excited to see what will come his way in the next month.