Would you like to help fund a Maasai Water project for a small village and school? Click here to donate now.    (If you are donating on line, be sure to write the word ‘water’ in the box that says other.)

This is an opportunity to help a poor village and school directly, without going through a large organization.  It is an opportunity to keep clean water in the hands of the local people, rather than in the hands of the Nestle Corporation and other Multi-National Corporations that are buying up water ways and water rights throughout Kenya and Africa.  Your money will  fund a much needed well that will bring clean water to a remote area and school located  in the Maasai village of Kilgoris.  If there is a drought, you will be saving the children.

At the Sirua Aulo Academy, the children are cared for with a loving staff of teachers, cooks and aids that  feed, clothe, house and educate 225 children, many of whom are orphaned or have special needs.  Emmanuel and his wife Lillian, because of their own experience growing up in the village, have committed their lives to responding to the needs of children who will no longer be able to live a traditional Maasai life.

Emmanuel Tasur believes the only way out for the changing culture of the Maasai  people of Kilgoris is through education. His desire to help children inspired him to develop programing not only for kids left behind because of economic, cultural and political reasons, but also for kids with speech problems or other special needs.   The Sirua Aulo Academy  is the only school in all of Kenya that takes in special needs kids, kids who would otherwise be hidden away and live a life of ignorance and shame.

All the children live at the school and are fed, clothed, educated and loved by a very dedicated staff of teachers and care-givers who also live at the school.  Their greatest need right now, as is most of Kenya, is clean water.  Because there is very little infrastructure in the mountainous area or very little political clout, with 99 percent of the Masaai  people being illiterate, he has relied on donations to build and maintain the school and must now appeal to people for donations to develop a clean water supply for the kids and staff of the school.

In the Rift valley, where Kilgoris is located, there is no large water ways, but there is plenty of water in the volcanic underground and what is needed is the  construction of a well.  That is what your donation will be able to do.  It is not some idea that may help but a concrete solution that will bring clean water to a school that has won many area-wide prizes for excellence in it’s educational programs and student success rate.

I was able to work closely and intimately with the Emmanuel and his teachers at the school because of the Village Volunteer program.  Village Volunteers is a non-profit organization that offered me the connection I needed to work and live with local people, people who were in control of their own lives and implementing their own ideas and programs.  All Village projects are executed and mapped by locals.  Village Volunteers supports local efforts by providing grant writing assistance, developing income generating enterprises and mobilizing the resources of volunteers world wide.

All the help, money and support goes right to the local people and programs.  The easiest way you can donate to The Maasai Well Project is directly through Village Volunteers. Click here to donate now.  (If you are donating on line, be sure to write the word ‘water’ in the box that says other.)

I am saving up $5,000 of my own money to give to Emmanuel and I’m hoping to match that amount by donations from you.  Please specify when you donate to Village Volunteers that it is for the Maasai Well Project and that you learned about the need for a well from my website.  Thank you for whatever you can do to help out.

Betty Lasorella