On July 22, Rotarians from Oklahoma, Arizona, and North Carolina, visited Narok, Kenya, to participate in the dedication of Global Grant 1868701, Mara Talek Community Water Project, Narok County, Kenya. This $145,000 water project included contributions from from six Rotary districts and twenty-eight individual clubs. The project began in 2015 and completed in 2019. Due to COVID, the project dedication could not take place until 2022. Global Grant 1868701 built a water system for the rural East African community of Talek with little access to clean water. The project included drilling a borehole, installing a pump and a solar generator to power it, a water tower, and a distribution system. Over 5,000 Maasai community members benefited directly from this project as well as their cattle, goats, and sheep. Two schools, a beading cooperative, and an education center also received water access through this project.
Three clubs from District 5750, Woodward Rotary, Oklahoma City Rotary, and Weatherford Rotary, invested in this project along with our district and the Rotary Foundation. Our district’s contribution from all sources totaled $38,500. On the Kenyan side, Professor Meitamei Ole Dapash, the director of MERC (an NGO) organized and hosted the trip. He has extensive experience as a Rotarian, working in the Kenyan government, and as a member of the Maasai community.
The local Maasai community turned out for the dedication of this project as well as another water project. Bob Felt, a Rotarian from North Carolina, has worked on water projects with the Maasai over the past ten years. Felt led our delegation on our visit to a kiosk for local water distribution for its dedication, a water storage tower, the project well site, and to the gathering at a school where the community turned out to celebrate the successful completion of the project.
This project, along with three related water projects, has changed the lives of many thousands of the Maasai community for the better. Community members no longer spend hours each day searching for water that may change location depending on weather patterns. Women and girls in particular have been freed to attend school. Men and boys have water for livestock and don’t spend their time herding animals to water sources that may lie far away.
I was humbled to experience the heartfelt gratitude of the community and their enthusiasm to greet us and celebrate the completion of this project. This is truly Rotary in Action.
