$5002 Raised of $5,002 Goal
PROJECT: Solar grid expansion at Mother Esther Rescue Center
Objective: Expand the solar grid at Mother Esther to power the new classrooms, dormitory, teachers’ quarters and security lights.
Summary: We are excited to announce the completion of the solar expansion project at Mother Esther. Through our partners Davis and Shirtliff, we installed new solar panels and a battery pack system that will help power the new classrooms, dormitory, and teachers' quarters. Previously, these areas were not covered by the old solar grid, and security lights were not installed forcing the girls and staff to struggle after dark. The school can comfortably house new students per the new competency-based curriculum, and the girls can study during night prep with enough lighting. Davis and Shirtliff also installed light bulbs at the gate and around the compound for security.
No. of children: 160
Partner Background: Mother Esther Rescue Center is located in Kajiado County which is home to the Maasai community in Kenya. Kajiado county is located in the Rift Valley in the southern part of Kenya. The center was started in late December 2015, not as a planned project but out of an emergency need within the community. A youth seminar was held to discuss the importance of education for children, particularly girls, as well as discuss the harmful effects of FGM and early marriage. The seminar started an important conversation within the community. During the month of December, which is the time girls are supposed to be circumcised and married off, several girls, accompanied by their mothers, sought refuge in the local church to hide from the planned marriages and FGM. By Early January 2016 the church sanctuary was housing 26 young girls together with their mothers. Mothers also sought refuge as in the community, when the girls refuse "the cut" mothers are blamed and are often beaten and banished from their marital homes, and sent back to their parents to become outcasts.
Hence Mother Esther came to being and with no facilities only the small semi permanent church building.
Partnership & previous projects: Rain water harvesting tanks, Perimeter fence, Drip-line open-land irrigation system, green houses
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View ProjectPartner Voices
Our partnership with Kitechild and their role in helping us start the Shamba (Kenyan for farm) and dairy farm has eliminated expenditure for vegetables and milk improving the children's nutrition and health greatly. The water borehole, the vegetables and the milk has also brought the community closer to us, as they come to get water and buy milk and vegtables. We are now coexisting well.
Wasilwa Lusweti, Watoto Wema Director
Kitechild doesn't give us handouts or tokens, they give us VALUE. They provided us with the seeds and funding to build two greenhouses and today we have greenhouses full of green tomatoes and are expanding the farm to grow onions and potatoes outside in the open air. This is never heard of before in Masai land, growing one's own food, but with their help we did it.
