In Kenya, as in much of Africa, the lack of safe drinking water causes many severe problems including dehydration, starvation and disease. The daily chore of fetching water is no small task in rural Kenya, and young women often walk as far as ten miles to collect what water they can from a polluted, dirty, hand-dug well, full of parasites and bacteria. These primitive wells are also structurally dangerous and often collapse when they get deep enough.

 In Kenya, the high mortality rate among children under five years old is primarily due to waterborne diseases such as gastroenteritis, diarrhea, malaria, and amoebic dysentery, to name just a few. Contamination from human and livestock waste is also a major cause of water-related diseases, despite the sanitary disposal methods of most of the population. Flies and other disease-carrying insects are drawn to unsanitary water sites and compound the risk of infection. All of these problems are exacerbated by the fact that economic hardship, inadequate education, and lack of public transport prevent many individuals from seeking healthcare in the early stages of an illness.

Throughout Kenya, Trust personnel monitor projects, provide technical support and administer funding, with the careful management of donor funds a top priority. To insure sustainable upkeep of the water points, all local communities we serve are encouraged to participate actively in their own water management, including maintenance and repair, using kits and instruction provided by the Trust.

Kenya Water-Wells Trust is a small grass roots non-governmental agency. Because its administrative costs are minimal, the Trust is able to devote funds directly to borehole well projects that bring fresh, life-giving drinking water to drought-stricken Africans and their livestock.

Toni Law, who serves as a Director, and her daughter, Tana Herbert, who is Executive Director and Projects Officer, founded the Trust in February 2006.

Rounding out the group are Duncan Kamau Ngochi, Kenyan Director, and geologist Kariuki Waruingo, who has a 95 percent success rate finding drill sites and more than 900 boreholes to his credit. Pass Africa Ltd. is the Trust's drilling partner in Kenya. This straightforward, passionate team is committed to pursuing the Trust's goals.

"From the first day I observed people and animals dying of thirst in Kenya's sun-baked Northern Frontier District, I made a commitment to devote my time and energy to helping the people of Kenya achieve access to safe, clean water --- one of life's most basic requirements. As a single mother of three, now living in such an amazing but impoverished and undeveloped country as Kenya, I had an opportunity to take a stand. Access to water is a God-given right. Water belongs to all life on Earth, and access should not depend on a country's wealth or political status.  I wanted to do what I could to serve these people in this fundamental need.- Tana Herbert, Executive Director