On this page, we report on the ongoing and planned projects so that donors and future donors can stay informed about our actions

Ongoing projects

We are ready to start our project on school attendance of children

Our efforts will focus now on helping pupils and students to school. Donations are very welcome for all study levels. We will even improve the selected children’s situation at home if needed.
The Kenyan NGO “Durable Sustainable Initiatives, Kenya” has got the ‘Certificate of Registration” and now we also have a Bank account in Kenya. So we are ready to continue in full force now.

Bonde: the community where our NGO DSIK is active

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.

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.

Our efforts in Baringo County

In Baringo County, we visited underdeveloped communities where one of our NGO board members has had longstanding personal contact. Over the years, this member has maintained connections with the communities and regularly provided them with food. During our visit, we brought additional food and clothes to strengthen our existing relationships and help. The primary concerns in these communities revolve around food security, shelter, and access to education.

During our visit, we toured three schools, all of which had open-air kitchens without shelter, leaving them vulnerable during the rainy season. At one boarding school with approximately 50 students, they had to fetch water three times a day from an open water source shared with wild animals. This water was used for various purposes including cooking, drinking, washing clothes, personal hygiene, and classroom cleaning. Although fortunate to have classrooms, other schools lacked adequate facilities; some even utilized trees and stones as makeshift classrooms and teacher’s quarters. Moreover, many lacked desks and other essential learning materials. Water is a major concern in the area and we are working towards it.

Stationery for Kapkesum, Chebokokwo and Mindililwo Primary Schools

Durable Sustainable Initiatives, Kenya together with Ademir Paulino’s team from Brazil on Wednesday the 8th of May visited three schools in Elgeyo-Marakwet county for more charity work. The schools we visited are Kapkesum Primary School, Chebokokwo Primary School and Mindililwo Primary School.
Most of the pupils in these schools lack basic stationery for learning. We donated exercise books, biro pens, pencils, erasers and sharpeners to all the three schools with an average population of 350 learners. The learners were very excited to have the stationery and they all promised to work even harder.

All these efforts are in line with DSIK objective to keep the learners in school.
Our next targets are special schools. We have identified Mindililwo school for the mentally challenged children and Chesoi special school for the deaf and dumb. These schools require food, beddings, stationery and school uniforms.

Planned projects

1. Providing additional support to these communities by delivering more food, clothes, and shoes, as well as offering academic assistance. Furthermore, we are initiating the cultivation of various types of food in the poorest communities of Baringo County. To accomplish this, we are seeking financial support and professional guidance from individuals or organisations in Kenya or abroad who have experience in agricultural field.
2. Besides our agriculture plans we will start a re-greening project in Baringo County to restore the original nature and biodiversity. This is also important to have succes planting vegetables. We will try out the method of “Justdiggit”.