Bonde project

Updates

An overview of the Bonde community

Bonde is a small village in Kenya, Trans-Nzoia County, Trans-Nzoia East Sub-County, Cherangany Constituency, Cherangany-Suwerwa Ward, Suwerwa Location, Kapterit Sub-Location. The specific community that DSIK has chosen to start working with has an estimated population of about twenty thousand (20,000) people.
The community is characterized by many people living on small pieces of land.
The community´s bigger percentage of people live in absolute poverty surviving on less than a dollar a day.

Social life

The community is characterized by large families with an average of six children per family. The community despite having different ethnicities, live together peacefully. They share resources such as water, which most walk for over 3km for water from the seasonal river.

Education

Kapterit sub-location has two public primary schools (Bonde Primary School and a Huruma primary school) and one secondary school (Friends Secondary School Bonde). About 10% of school-going age are not in school and about 5% don’t proceed to secondary after completing primary education.

Access to Health

Kapterit sub-location doesn’t have any health facility. The locals travel to neighboring sub-locations to get medical services.

Water situation

The community gets water from local streams for all purposes. The water is not clean nor safe for drinking but they use it anyway. They often end up sharing the water with animals.

July 2025

Completing the collection of rainwater from the renovated roof

After changing the iron plates on the roof of one of our students’ family’s house in April and mounting most of the gutters, we have now installed a water tank. We put the water tank of 1000 liters on a solid table and connected the pipe from the gutter. The connection through the lid of the tank keeps the tank closed and provides much cleaner water than from the river. We taught the son to clean the gutter once a week, cleaning in the direction away from the connecting pipe to the tank. Through this, no dirt goes into the tank. We also bought them a local ladder to reach the gutter.
The connection with the pipe from the gutter can be disconnected; it’s necessary to take the water tank down from the table to clean properly when empty in the dry season or when needed.
Teaching how and when to clean the tank and gutter is necessary to make them aware that maintenance is needed to keep things functioning well for a long time.

Preparing at the land for our model agriculture field to build a rainwater catcher

Digging the holes to place the posts and secure them with concrete to build the rainwater catcher later this year. The water we will use for irrigation. For this, we install a simple irrigation system working on a battery of 9 Volt. Now, the posts stand between the corn; later this year, it will become our model agriculture field, with different vegetables. We will also try out different ways of planting in this field.

Mapping Bonde by a drone

To get an overview of Bonde, we used a drone. Doing this, the engineer of the County can map Bonde to localise the concentrations of houses, which will help us to locate the best borehole locations.

Fast-growing handworking classes, which learn women to save small money in their individual savings accounts

June 2025

Introduction of handicraft groups

The introduction of handicraft groups in Bonde has been an overwhelming success. Our CEO, Maurine started 4 weeks ago with groups of women to teach them crocheting, knitting, and beadwork. Currently, she has 18 groups with 10 members each. Every week, more groups are starting up.
The people of the groups are living in the same neighbourhood. So the people do not need to walk a long distance to attend the handicraft activity.

In this short time, the purpose of the handicraft groups is widening. Every participant saves 100 Kenyan Shillings each time the group meets. For that purpose, KCB bank came with 5 people to open a group account for every group.. But everyone saves in that account in their name.
For most people, their first bank account. Also first time, they learn about the possibility of letting their money grows, and they set a goal to use that money in the future.
Basic business principles, such as price setting, identifying the most in-demand products in the market, and organizing to bring their products to the local market, are learned and will be put into practice.

First steps to install boreholes

The first steps are being taken to install boreholes and bring water to the houses in Bonde within a few years.
A hydrogeological study took place at one location and shows that we have to drill 120 meters deep and will be able to pump up 4,000 litres of water an hour. That means 20 litres per person per day for the people of Bonde in the area of the borehole.

To cover the entire community, it means we need 8 boreholes. These are all located near concentrations of houses.
Now we are defining the 8 locations and will organise hydrogeological studies. Maybe some places do not have enough water, while others have more, as our first studied location.

A lot more steps are necessary to come up with the best plan.

April 2025

Improving the houses for the scholars we are paying school fees for

We found out first about the biggest problems at the houses of our scholars. In the pictures, you will see the improvements to the roof we made of a small mud house where a single mother, grandmother, and 3 children were living. It was leaking a lot of rainwater inside. Besides the general bad condition of the roof, the second-hand undulated iron sheets had open holes from their first use.

We also mounted a gutter to catch the water in a one-thousand-liter tank. Providing the family with cleaner water than they get from the river. Through this, the mother and children have to walk less to the river for water.

Meeting with the authorities of the community of Bonde

Like all communities and cities in Kenya, Bonde has, besides the Area Chief, also 18 villages, with 18 village elders, each of them responsible for about 100 households. Furthermore, there is a contact person for every 10 households. This person is a volunteer, a first aid, and a link to the higher administration of the community.

Our meeting was organised by the Area Chief and attended by many of his Village Elders also popularly known as the ¨Community Gatekeepers¨. Also, some teachers and directors of schools were at the meeting. Part of the parents of our beneficiary students also attended.

After the CEO, Maurine, presented the NGO, Durable Sustainable Initiatives Kenya, the Chief asked everyone, one by one, to speak out which, accordingly to their opinion, was the most needed to be done in Bonde.

The needs that came forward were drilling for water, support for education (school fees, practice in English for teenagers and adults), handicrafts (knitting, crocheting, …), improving agriculture, … .

We explained at the meeting the kind of help we will organise in Bonde. We told them that we are not coming with a lot of money, but we will help them achieve self-reliance.

We told them that we can only reach that result by working together.

In time, the people of Bonde should be able to pay the school fees for their own children.

We will teach them to save some money to provide for their own needs e.g; save money to improve their houses.

We will help to bring drinkable water close to their houses. And also to develop small businesses.

Improving agriculture (Zai pits, irrigation, ..) will be the first mean to get more income.

It is very important to maintain all improvements. For this, we will install committees to watch over this.

January 2025

We started the project on School attendance for children in Bonde

In January, the new school year started for primary and secondary schools in Kenya. Despite the difficult process of opening a bank account for a Non-Profit organization in Belgium for donations, we could pay school fees for 16 children. In the old curriculum, day secondary school 4 scholars and 9 boarding scholars. In the new curriculum, 2 junior secondary scholars. One student started her studies in nursing. We have supported her since September 2024.
All children are selected among the most needed in Bonde. Many others need help too but are registered on our waiting list.

Some initiatives to help children with medical needs

In Bonde we were informed of a 20-month-old girl who had undergone surgery for two benign tumors in the lower leg. Since no money was available to buy milk, the healing of the bone with grafts was precarious. This is because not enough calcium in her food.
Besides, no hygienic circumstances for cradling on the earth with a not wholly healed wound and even no possibility of standing from time to time which makes bone healing problematic.
DSIK helped set up and paid to provide daily milk for the girl. Trouser stockings kept the bandage in place.
We also asked a local carpenter to make a play box for the child. This created hygienic circumstances to play and the possibility to stand up with support.

For the young girl with Spina Bifida (open spine), we brought special toys to stimulate her senses. We, as NGO or white people, did not give the toys to the girl. We let the mother give it to her child. This allows us to respect the normal bond between mother and child. We also avoid teaching the child to expect everything from others. This important mindset change is necessary to get the country and their people forward in the future. Helping them to get a decent income is needed to achieve that.

Water for Bonde

An interesting possibility to get water to Bonde is a water dam that exists in the mountains above Bonde. A school gets water from that source now.
Shortly, we will undertake steps to find out the capacity of that source. Can it be used to provide water to the whole of the community of Bonde or only partly? And also which is cheaper?
Drilling for water or bringing the water down from the dam.

May 2024

How will our NGO DSIK start their activities in Bonde

We must begin with a low budget because of the unexpectedly long and difficult way to get an account for the non-profit organisation in Belgium. The lack of an account made the planned presentations of our NGO impossible.
Nevertheless, we expect soon to open an account in Belgium or Spain, which we can use (probably temporarily before we get the final one) to receive donations. The needs in Bonde are high.

The concrete planning of “Durable Sustainable Initiatives, Kenya” for BONDE

Education

We have selected about 15 children at this moment. This we did with the help of the schools and local administration. Besides Maurine, our CEO will unexpectedly visit all of them. This is to confirm we support the most needed.
Of course, the needs in Bonde are many times higher. We hope every term to be able to support more children in need.
The new school year starts at the beginning of January 2025.
Even for the selected children, we do not have the money yet. But we hope to get it in time.

Besides paying the school fees, we look into the situation at their homes. Are their mud houses dry? Have they windows, a door, electricity. Are the mud walls of the house in good condition?
If needed, we improve the defects. We will buy materials if necessary and loan the tools they need. But they have to do the work themselves with the help of their neighbors/friends.
All this is important for the child to be able to study in a more normal situation.

Water

Water is in Bonde, as in 80% of Kenya, a big problem. Clean water is rare. The women and children provide their households with water. A time-consuming job.
Despite almost 8 months of regular rain, most often at night, Kenyans do not have the habit of collecting rainwater properly. Gutters at their undulated iron sheets roofs seldom are there. Together, we will attach plastic gutters on their roofs and use a pipe to divert the rainwater to a barrel with a lid. This rainwater will be much cleaner than the water of the seasonal rivers.

In time, we will also put rainwater catchers mainly to use for irrigation at the piece of land where they grow their vegetables. But in need, they will also use the water for their households.
Through this irrigation system, working on a battery of 9V, they will have an extra harvest in the dry season. Provide them with extra food and will give them more money by selling the vegetables they do not need for their family. Extra money to probably pay the school fees by themselves.

When enough donations we will even drill for water, build a water tower, and put taps at their houses and/or at crucial places that are easy to reach for people living in more remote areas of Bonde.

Food

Besides, already before we have rainwater catchers and irrigation systems in place, we will work together to apply the African way of growing vegetables, maize, and grains …. a method even used in arid places. We will use the method of Zai pits. This prevents erosion of their land and teaches them to grow 100% organic food.
Their harvest will double once they apply this African system properly.
This will help the development of the community and create a stable, durable life for them.

Other actions

• Learning the women to knit and crochet.
• Organise teaching parents/adults to read and write if they cannot do it now. Some teachers in the schools can do it. We pay them for the extra hours.
• Giving extra lessons in English to teenagers to master the language better. By school teachers too.
• Learning them to preserve food for a long time in jars. Also, make jam and preserve it.
• Help to start small businesses. E.g., cleaning water tanks.
• Giving sexual education in the schools.
• Explaining birth control and the reasons why to families and adults.
• Our CEO Maurine has contacted the bank to discuss the possibility of “setting up saving accounts with a goal” for the people of Bonde.

Special needs for handicapped

• Until now, we have a Cerebral Palsy teenager in Bonde who is now shuffling/crawling on the ground which is a disaster for his clothes. We will put leather in the critical places on his clothes.
  Also, we need to buy him a wheelchair with thick tires so he can be driven around in the community. Cost: 150 – 200 € (cost for change to tick tires unknown at the moment).
• We also have a child of 19 months born with Spina Bifida (Open spine). She had surgery for it.
  But as often, she also has hydrocephalus and should go to the hospital each month to follow up.
  But the single mother with 3 children, can not pay for it. The cost of transport and the doctor is 26 € each month.
  Besides, she has bilateral congenital hip dysplasia.