LANCASTER EVANGELICAL FREE CHURCH KOINONIA SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASS

WELL DRILLING PROJECT FOR THE ENZIU COMMUNITY

Enziu is a rural semi-arid region in Mwingi District of Eastern Province of Kenya. A recent visit to the area revealed the adverse situation in which the community survives. A manmade dam, Enziu Earth Dam Project with less than 10,000litres of water is what they call their best water source. It’s a miracle that the water never completely dries up. Somehow, God keeps refilling it so that those who come to fetch do not lack. The community has formed a committee to manage the dam to ensure it is not interfered with by animals. The members contribute a fee that employs a guard to look after the water. Non members pay Kshs.70 (less than a dollar) per month to fetch water. About 10kilometres (6.2miles) from that dam, two rivers once converged, these too are completely dry. Desperate villagers sink wells that seem to chase after the underground water reservoir. Hand dug shallow wells are deepened with every passing day of the dry spell, as far down as the water level will go. 

School children are sent to fetch water or a woman and her donkeys with several cows trotting behind. They construct a wooden trough just next to the well from which the animals drink as the women and children fill up their cans. The water level is so low that there’s no way of fetching it without mixing with some sand particles. Not to mention that their feet will crush the lower sand walls as they go down the well to fetch the water, further contaminating the water. Having walked for miles under the humid heat and dying of thirst, a villager bends down to drink up the water, completely oblivious of the diseases one can contract. From cholera to typhoid, the swelled up stomachs of school children demonstrate that.

Drilling for Life, with help Lancaster Evangelical Free Church Koinonia Sunday School Class in Pennsylvania is putting up efforts to provide access to clean portable water for the Enziu Community. DFL is raising funds from the Church and well wishers to help this community by providing a borehole that will serve over 120 families in Enziu. Putting up a borehole in the area will give hope to this community and improve their standard of living as well their health. A nearby well drilled by DFL in another area of Mwingi called Kiomo evidences how much benefit a borehole can bring to a community. In Kiomo, they have used the borehole to irrigate a local green house yielding tomatoes which the community earns a livelihood from. Our hope and aim is that Enziu will equally be transformed as we drill for them a borehole, thus giving them access to clean portable water. Well wishers are welcome to send their donations to:

DRILLING FOR LIFE

266 Vera Cruz Road, Reinholds, PA 17569 USA

For more information email here