KEENAN'S KIDS

September 18, 2017

Clean Water

During our March 2017 visit to Kagoma Gate, we observed an unusually high number of children with skin infections and stomach disorders. It didn’t take long to recognize that the root cause of all this was the lack of clean water.

Drinking water for the Kagoma Gate school children (Keenan’s Kids) and the entire community comes from a single well (photo above, left). Unfortunately, many of the pesticides used in local farming have contributed to contaminating the well water. As a partial solution, the community, with assistance from our partner, the Saratoga Giving Circle, have designed and built two concrete rainwater collection tanks (photo above, right). These tanks have helped take the strain off the single community well. Nevertheless, the rainwater, which is not present through their dry season, still needs to be boiled.

After much discussion with the leaders of the community, Keenan’s Kids has offered to contribute two water filtration systems with capability to purify the water sufficiently so as to eliminate the burden and cost of boiling it. We learned of these systems from Karen Flewelling, a longtime supporter of Keenan’s Kids and also a philanthropist and missionary devoted to bringing clean water to many communities in Africa.

We are hopeful that in 2018 the new water filtration systems will be installed and operational. And most important, that on our future visits we will see fewer children with skin infections and stomach disorders.

We continue focusing on your kids, Keenan!