Rotary Club of Kilifi and Vutakaka Junior School Well Project

Rotary Club of Kilifi and Vutakaka Junior School Well Project

Well under construction at VJS, September 2011

Vutakaka Junior School (VJS) is a community school based in Takaungu, a poor rural area on the coast of Kenya. Founded in 2003, VJS visionaries wanted to provide the local community with an opportunity to attend a school targeting to provide high education standards albeit at a low cost. The major source of funds for the school is the East African Center for the Empowerment of Women and Children (EAC), charitable organizations and other well-wishers, mainly in the USA.(http://www.eastafricancenter.org/baraza)

With the failing rains and poor harvests from the small scale farmers over the last three years, public schools have had to grapple with increased admissions due to the free food programme offered by the government. As such, the EAC was at a dilemma… to increase the cost of education for the over 200 students to purchase food supplies, or to search for a more sustainable method of providing free food (lunch) to the deserving students. While very important, this free lunch program would be very costly to maintain.  An idea was born to develop the extra 3 acres on the school property into a farm that could be run by students and school staff to meet many of the school’s food needs. This would eventually ensure a sustainable supply of nutritious food for generations of students at VJS. Initial funding for the well was raised by the American International Women’s Group of Genoa, which allowed for the hydro-geological survey and the digging of the well.

Having participated in a massive food drive 2009 that saw over 3000 families provided with relief food, this seemed quite the ideal project for the Rotary club of Kilifi to step into. Thus, the club recently awarded two 100,000 KSH grants towards food security in Kilifi District after competitive bidding from several organizations. One proud recipient of the grant was Vutakaka Junior School. The school was awarded the money to complete the construction of a well for their farm project, which would in turn grow the food needed for the student’s lunch each day.

The Rotary Club of Kilifi felt that this project was in line with the stated goals of increasing food security for the community, serving a disadvantaged population in Kilifi District, and most important sustainable after initial funding. The money was awarded to buy the pump for the well and for a 1000-litre tank to store water for irrigation. As their contribution, The EAC agreed to raise funds for the stand to put the tank on and to connect the electricity to the pump.

The project is in its final stages of completion.

 

 

The pump has already been installed and connected to the electricity supply. The tank has been purchased while the stand for the tank is almost complete. Once this is finished, the tank will go up and the staff and students can begin pumping water to be used for irrigating vegetables year-round. As the wise old Swahili leaders would say, “Kidole kimoja hakivunji chawa” (One finger cannot kill a louse.)