A lady tells her community about PUR and how it has helped her health.

A teacher grades paper outside of the classroom.

Principal and secretary of a school tell us how PUR is used among the children.

Women throws corn.

A lady sits down to learn about PUR.

A PUR demonstration for a women’s HIV support group.

Children learn about clean and safe drinking water.

Children interested in PUR.

An all girl’s class learns about PUR and the benefits of clean drinking water

A women sits against her friend near her support group.

Women learn how to strain the water after using PUR with a clean cotton cloth.

A young boy sits outside of his school.

Children wait for class to start.

_A boys class sit patiently while learning about PUR. _

Children stand during a PUR presentation.

Girls get excited to learn.

Women sits during a women’s HIV support group presentation of PUR.

Tom, our wonderful driver who was very interested in PUR.

Child outside of the classroom.

Women’s HIV support group, Kisumu Kenya.

Women stirs the PUR packet into the dirty water.

Stirring the dirty water.

Mike Burke films a PUR demonstration.

Women dances at our arrival.

Joy of PUR.

Proud women stands on her dried corn.

Elder of the community tells her wisdom.

Women carries water from a closed water source (covered by a mud barrier).

A presentation on the various health related products such as PUR, mosquito nets, skin treatments and food.

A child gets dressed after taking a bath in a local water source.

A beautiful girl whose father was being taken care of by the red cross.

A man tells his health struggles related to the dirty water.

A young sister holds her baby brother.

A group of children gather corn from a field.

Young child rests.

A picture of a women’s daughter that moved to Germany and her baby.

A retired sergeant shows us how he bottles his purified water after using PUR.

Lady shows us her crops.

Bananas. When the bottom bud blossoms and falls to the ground, the bananas are then ready to eat.

A women sits next to a pile of green beans. They had to be kept inside to be protected from the animals and rain.

Proud women shows us her corn.

Women carries a bucket of water home for her family.

Carrying water home.

A quiet man shared his strength after using PUR

Bucket of dirty water.

A lady strains the purified water through a clean cotton cloth.

Straining dirty from the water.

A women and her linens.

Lady carries clothes to be washed.

Sister and brother await their mother.

Cleaning clothes at a local water source.

Lady shows us all of her posters and book pages that decorate her walls.

Man invites us in to his home.

Post Election Violence

A local Kenyan Pottery shop.

HIV support group gather in a local church located in Kisumu Kenya to learn about PUR.

_A PUR demonstration shows how dirty water can become clean, safe and drinkable. _

A women prepares to pour the PUR packet into a dirty bucket.

_Support group watches demonstration in amazement. _

Women looks out the window.

After making us lunch, the women tells us stories about her support group.

Many of the Kenyan homes had PUR hanging up like a decoration, PUR is very important to maintaining their health.

A women arranges the pottery in front of her home.

Pottery.

The man who started the pottery shop, he has created pots that keep water cool for drinking.

His home and his pots.

Some more pots, the men in the background are making pots with their hands.

A women washes dishes after lunch.

Our team and members of the community support group

We have been traveling around the Nyanza province in western Kenya. Starting from Kisumu on the shores of Lake Victoria, we journey inward and find amazing people doing amazing work. It seems like each day we venture down an uncharted dirt road and find ourselves in the middle of a community support group or with an outstanding individual changing their community.

Personally, today I was worn out, I admit it. I was less enthusiastic than I usually am. But in those moments when you think you’ve seen it all is when something extra ordinary happens.

Today we met Jemina Odo, a self proclaimed ambassador of Hope and the overseer of 4 support groups. She is an energetic and powerful individual fully living up to her title. Her groups deal with children orphaned from HIV/AIDS, widows, and women living positive. She has turned her land into a community farm, each group working the land and benefiting from the fruits of their labor either directly or through selling the produce in the marketplace. An adamant supporter of clean water and the PUR system, she has been a role model for the many women who are involved in her groups along with the orphans she supports who number over 100.

Her commitment to PUR is clear, as is her commitment to fostering an open environment that educates on the importance of clean water as well as HIV/AIDS, nutrition, and the empowerment of women. She has seen people come back from the brink, suffering from malnutrition and general poor health as she herself has done.

It was a pleasure to spend the day with this lady as she lead us around beaming, explaining the nuances of the different crops she grows and preaching the benefits that they have within the groups.

As she leapt across a stream that divides her farmland she was quick to point out the others who had helped her reach her goal and was insistent that she and her groups would continue to grow and educate the community. This commitment to others was evident once again as she waded back across the stream to help those who could not make it to the other side on their own, literally carrying some across the stream.

Truly an amazing experience with an amazing person!

-Mike

It was amazing to see, again, how strong these women are. They have come together to form a group, without knowing each other, without knowing what they were going to be learning, without knowing what to expect. They are starting a place where women can be empowered to make their own income, and even invest and start a small business through SWAP. Every time we see a group like this, we leave thoroughly inspired by the group’s sense of community and acceptance for everyone.

-Ange

Being a mother myself, it was hard to see someone who clearly loves their children, struggle to sustain their lives. With looking into her ever-avoiding eyes, it was undeniable that this mother was tired and thankful for any type of relief. We bonded on levels beyond motherhood and it was obvious that our visit gave her hope. Her pride and persistence is nothing we can take credit for, but I believe our encouragement helped her realize that her strength is not unnoticed.

It was hard leaving knowing that I would return to my semi-privileged life in the states and she would still be in her one room house. My sadness was not pity, yet more resentful that we couldn’t really keep in touch and go through this struggle together. Regardless, her story will stay in my heart and continue to encourage me to persist.

-Amber

Young boys take baths in Lake Victoria. By Shay

We met with George Spencer today, a field worker with the Siaya region Kenya Red Cross branch, who escorted us around to various community support groups and introduced us to a few other region field workers. His knowledge on the water issues was pretty accurate because he worked directly with the recent one-year PUR pilot program. He informed us that 75% of opportunistic infections are related to the bad water sources, which was astounding knowing that PUR helps to eliminated viral and bacterial diseases.

We also met with the Deputy Public Health Officer, Judith Wasilwa, from the Siaya District Public Health Office who informed us that the problem with water sources is deeply rooted in the community sanitation infrastructure and PUR helps as temporary relief.

It was nice to hear that PUR really helped save lives and people have a strong desire to continue to use it. Today was a moving experience because we really reached out into the community and met the end-users.

-Amber

A mother walks away with dirty water from a community pond. By Shay

Half of us met up with the new SWAP location in Kakamega. They only opened in February, but have already made significant progress in the area.

First, we visited a potter, Jacob, who is the third generation in his family to be producing clay pottery. With the education about clean water growing in Kenya, he has now broadened his makings to water pots that hold 20 liters of water after they have been purified. For 320 shillings, one can buy a traditional African refrigerator pot with a water tap (it keeps the water very cold despite the temperatures outside). The pots play into the safe water “behavior change” step where people stop putting cups and hands directly into their water container, which recontaminates the water. SWAP has commissioned him to make 20 pots so that they can disperse them throughout their offices.

We also saw another community, called Eregi Home-Based Care, which has now been trained by SWAP in safe water. One leader said if these women are trained, then the rest of the community will be trained. The community is made up of a widow’s group, care takers for orphans, and HIV counseling groups. They are still waiting for business training. During the PUR demonstration, they sang songs that translated to, “A good mother likes clean water, a good husband likes clean water, good children like clean water, so we should give clean water to the whole community.” We continue to see that PUR demonstrations not only show the magic of this new product, but also teaches safe/clean water education. With the PUR demonstration, people learn things that may keep their family healthy and active.

A couple of startling statistics that we were told: 60% of people are affected by dirty water and 50 million spent on teaching people about proper handwashing.Kakamega was a beautiful city. The ride there, though long, was scenic and green, with these interesting, large stones that populated the surrounding hills. Several of them had anti-ODM graffiti. It made me feel so estranged from this country and what has been going on for the past six months.

-Ange

It’s a Monday, we are an hour outside of Kisumu, and Ajigo school students, who are a part of CARE’s Health Club, fetch water from their local water source, which is quite turbid. They will walk back to school to both demonstrate PUR and purify water for the school’s use.

See also: Shay’s Day 14 journal and photos