New Life International - Kenya

New Life International - Kenya (NLI-Kenya) is a non profit Christian organization registered in 2007 to provide safe water and sanitation to the poor both in urban and rural areas through affordable environmental friendly appropriate water purification technology.

Safe water and sanitation is the start of the journey towards community development, improved health, and first step in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

Our activities include:    

• Promoting hygiene at community and school level through interactive methods like Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation (PHAST)
• Promoting the use of environmental friendly, affordable technologies for water purification.
• Support communities to access safe and affordable water and sanitation services.
• Sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ as the ‘living water’.

  Currently we have installed water purifiers in the Kibera slums and Busia.

For demonstration and training contact the main office.

St. George’s House 3rd floor suite 312
Parliament Rd.
P.O BOX 10611 - 00200
NAIROBI-KENYA
254-20-3516005 (office)
254-722-348890 (cell)
Email:  Jared here

Six years into the Millennium Development Goals, the number of persons without access to safe, adequate water and good sanitation services is growing at an alarming rate.  In many urban centers in Kenya, women, men, the youth and children are overcrowded, stress and exceed the existing social amenities and facilities.  On a daily basis, families consume water of compromised quality and at exorbitant rates for example 60% of the Nairobi population lives in the informal settlements characterized by inadequate access to basic services. About 20% of the Kenyan population is children under five years with the Infant Mortality Rate of 112 per 1000 live births and child Mortality Rate is 74 per 1000 live births. Preventable diseases like Malaria, typhoid, dysentery, diarrhea and other water-borne related diseases contribute to the high child mortality rate.

During periods of acute water shortage in Kibera, (the second largest slum in Sub-Saharan Africa,) the average water consumption is 20 to 60 litres per person per day. This costs about USD $0.26 to 0.78, yet the majority of these residents live below the poverty line and spend less than one dollar per day. Lack of access to safe water forces communities living in informal settlements to spend a large proportion of their income on water leading to abject household poverty and consequent making them venerable water born and poor sanitation diseases.

Therefore New life International Kenya works with communities to improve access safe, affordable drinking water and hygiene. Our activities include:

Promotion of the use of water technologies

New Life International Kenya in conjunction with the New Life International-USA, promotes the use of a water purifier. This is a new and unique system that creates chlorine from table salt to disinfect water and make it safe for drinking. It is a simple, portable, cost effective, water purification system designed and constructed for use even in the disaster stricken areas like ever flooding Bundarangi District - Western Kenya, Kano-plains in Nyanza province, Tana River in the coastal region, war torn countries such Somalia, Sudan, Democratic Republic of  Congo( DRC)  among others.

Hygiene promotion

This is done through an interactive, participatory approach and method called (PHAST)  It is a  learning and action planning process that builds on the self-esteem, resourcefulness and co-responsibility of community groups, schools and their facilitating institutions ( such as local government).  The emphasis is on behavior change, and community-owned and sustained water and sanitation resources and services for example they are able to construct a well Ventilated Pit Latrines, protection of water springs, and provision of good sanitation to the community.

Supporting communities to access water and sanitation services

In Kenya, only 14 percent of households have water piped into their homes or have an outdoor tap. Over 50 percent of house hold draw water from rivers and dams which is not safe for drinking. 80 percent of the country population lack access to adequate and safe water supply. Eighty-eight percent of population sticks to the old traditional belief that women and children are solely responsible for fetching water for daily use and 22 percent of these women and children spend more than two hours per day fetching water (women and children walk miles carrying heavy buckets and containers of water. Each household has to fetch at an average of 100 liters per day). Animals share the same water sources with humans which make water be unhealthy. During the dry seasons, water supplies are inadequate or non-existent in many regions so that both humans and livestock go without water, which result to poor   health and inadequate production.

PREVIOUS  ACTIVITIES

New life International Kenya-Has been involved in sensitizing and training communities in various parts of the country.

1. New life International Kenya did a sensitization Programme in the following communities on clean and safe drinking water: - Busia, Eldoret, Kibera, Nyamira and Kisii Districts by demonstrations.
2. The NLI-K organized successful Workshops in Liberty Bible Baptist College and Langas Baptist Church in Eldoret Municipality and Faith Baptist Orphanage Center at Soy in Lugari District where over 1000 leaders participated in that workshop on safe and clean water using  the appropriate water technology (water purifier).

Planned Activities.

Jared showing the water purifier

Water and sanitation situation in Kenya

NLI Kenya has drawn programmes to assist provide clean and safe drinking water for Kibera slums in Nairobi, Busia, Nyamira, Eldoret,and Kisii Distrits.The programme designed for this regions are influenced by poverty levels as indicated by the central bureau of statistics (CBS) .NLI believes in simple effective methods of  taking services to those poor communities including;

• Promoting hygiene at community and school level through interactive methods like Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation (PHAST)
• Promoting the use of environmental friendly, affordable technologies for water purification system.
• Installing of water purifiers at water sources such as springs, wells, rivers.
• Sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ as the ‘living water’.
• Training communities on micro-credit finance management, entrepreneurship skills, leadership skills and project management for project sustainability.

CHALLENGES

NLI-Kenya lacks funds to carryout the activities outlined above .Poor infrastructure and lack of information and visibility profile regarding the programme have been identified as the key ingredients hindering great achievement in poor areas of operation.

Currently we have installed some water purifiers in Kibera slums, Kisii and Busia and hope to extend to other regions once the strategic partners/Donors have been identified.

Water is life .Clean safe drinking water is scarce in the world the fact that makes the poor and children suffer most .Although they so much desire to have the water purifier to help them have clean and safe water, they cannot afford to buy and manage the machine without resources.