Friday, July 10, 2009

Moving Forward and Introducing RWI-Maji Salama- Its Official!

Our team has hit a fork in the road on this journey. Aseel and Sanghamitra will be leaving Kenya on Monday to head back to their home countries (Iraq and India respectively) for a bit before starting the fall semester this August. Meanwhile Becky and Tanisha will remain in-country for about two more weeks. As we prepare to bid our teammates goodbye we are also reflecting on how fruitful this trip has been. We started this journey and calling this a “Feasibility Study” and quickly came to the conclusion on week two that this was “very possible.” Since then we have been trying figure out what is the most appropriate strategy for our team.

Isaac our local Kenyan representative has helped us in registering the entity RWI-Maji Salama. “Maji Salama” means, “Safe Water” in Swahili. We are official, and are awaiting our first down payment for a big order of 200 BSFs. Once we receive the down payment we are hoping to start production!


"Give me a R- Give me a W- Give me an I... what's that spell??? RWI!!!"

The highlights of our time in Kenya:
 Going on Safari in Masai Mara and seeing tons of wildlife!
 Visiting urban slums in Nairobi, and understanding the sanitation and water situation there.
 Visiting communities in the Njoro Watershed and understanding how the BSF has impacted households already.
 Installing three BSFs in a local secondary school and going back to see the progress and implementation of the BSFs.
 Visiting local microfinance institutions and even having the possibility to partner with one!
 Establishing a partnership with the Nakuru Youth Polytechnic Institute for production and manufacturing.
 Experiencing frustration and trying to understand how things get done in Kenya especially registering a business entity.

These are just a few of our highlights… and there has been much more!
We wish our dear teammates a safe journey and a restful time with their families.

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