the email newsletter of the The Kesho Trust

The Kesho Trust / Masaai Partnership

We are mounting a fundraising campaign to mobilize an important project with our Tanzania partner organization  Ereto Masaai Youth [EMAYO].  Please read on to learn more about the work and how you can help.

Also check out all the work of the Kesho Trust at: www.thekeshotrust.org 
We are always interested in your feedback, ideas and suggestions. Contact us at: info@thekeshotrust.org

Seasons Greetings

How would you like to give a gift this Christmas that really changes lives? Why not consider a charitable donation?  The lives of Emmanuel’s family and his community, especially the women and girls, would certainly change with your gift.

Emmanuel’s mother can’t carry the water from the only water source for the area which is 4 kms from her hut on the southern Maasai Steppe of central Tanzania. So she gets help from the younger women in her extended family to carry the water supply for her – for drinking, cooking and washing. They carry the water weighing about 20 kg in whatever containers they can find [usually old plastic fuel or cleaning fluid containers] on their heads for the walk back to the boma. This is a major daily chore that takes a good part of the daylight hours.

Some of the villagers explained to us what problems they regularly faced:

Olkeri: Construction of our primary school is very slow due to lack of water and the pupils carry water from home for their teachers at school.

Nehoiyo: The water source is far and there are many people there. Sometimes the taps are empty and therefore sometimes we back home with no water.

Rose: Our boma is very dirty and without enough water to wash our bodies the result is various skin diseases.

The cattle too suffer from a lack of water and the men move the herds to areas where the supply is best. This is often difficult and means much time away from home. Emmanuel wrote me an email about this when he was home in October.

“I have been working with the family traveling with the cattle far away from home for water and pasture. We have shifted the cows to a temporary place under the mountain where water and pasture are better, leaving the goats, sheep and women with children and a few cows for a little milk for the very young children. We have being doing very difficult work - digging the wells for the cows to have water as well as finding the lost cows everyday. Because the place under the mountain has more pasture compared to Kibirashi, the cows hide so as to be left there. In fact, Bruce, the work is very difficult and the yield is very little. The cattle destroy the environment by having a big number of thin and tired cows which then die on the mountain after falling or otherwise. Some of the children have also left school and follow the cattle.”

Emmanuel is trying to help change this and provide a better life for his community. With the support of the Kesho Trust he has joined with other youth from his area to create an organization called Ereto Maasai Youth [EMAYO]. They are developing rainwater harvesting and storage systems in the community to reduce the women’s burden for providing the domestic water supply and to augment available water for the cattle.

Emmanuel explains how the impact of the rainwater harvesting project goes beyond just improving water supplies: “Water is our community’s biggest challenge. But if we have better supplies, we can do other economic activities to raise the income level in our society. Together with animal keeping we can also do gardening and farming which now are not possible. With more time available, women in the community will be able to improve the standard of living in our community through economic activity and better sanitation and health practices.”

One local woman told us, “We are ready to form groups and grow gardens for vegetables and fruits when water is available”

Water is something most of us take for granted. The highest quality of water is what we expect but consider for a moment there are over one billion people around the world who are unable to drink safe, clean water. For communities like Emmanuel’s struggling to find supplies that are safe to use is a daily chore and it takes time away from schooling, looking after young children or making an income.

You can help this Christmas by choosing to support our work with Emmanuel and his community. If you make a donation to the Kesho Trust you will be helping to make sure Emmanuel and his organization can improve the lives of people in his community.

Please consider ways in which you can support us this Christmas and in the future:

• Make a donation - its easy to do online at our website
• Become a regular donor – contributing as little as $10 a month can make a difference
• Talk to your employer and ask them to consider making a donation
• Organise a fundraising event – we can help with more information
• Pass this letter along to your network of friends and colleagues and encourage their participation - many hands make light work

It is through regular support that the work we have planned can be achieved throughout the year. Please help in this work and keep up to date with our progress by signing up for our electronic newsletter.

With my very best wishes for the rest of this Christmas season and for 2008,

Bruce K. Downie
Director
The Kesho Trust

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Make cheques payable to "the Kesho Trust" and mail to:
     11166 Willow Rd.
     Sidney, British Columbia 
     Canada   V8L 5K6

Or donate on line at: http://www.thekeshotrust.org/how-to-help/donate/

For gift donations, please send the name and address of the person in whose name the donation is being made so we can send a certificate acknowledging the gift.

The Kesho Trust is a registered Canadian charity [#89531 6206 RR0001] and tax receipts for all donations over $25. will be issued.