Letter: From Grafton students, a gift of water to Kenyan school

Under the direction of Laura Deschenes, Grafton Middle School kids held a Krispy Kreme Fundraiser for the Open Hearts and Minds School. They raised $5,617 for the school!  The money will be used to pay for the purchase of water, something the school does not typically have to buy, but given the drought this year, it became imperative.  Below is an update from Sarah Clements-Boyer a founder of Open hearts and Minds and a former Grafton resident.

Open Hearts and Minds has grown over the past 10 years from one class of 10 children to over 100 students today plus more in secondary school. Located in a small rural village in Western Kenya, we provide not only a high quality education taught to the Kenyan curricula, but we also provide two hot meals per day for the children and make sure that they get any necessary medical treatment. It’s simple: a hungry or sick child doesn’t learn well.

In December 2021 the short rains in October/November never came to Kokoth Kotang! At OHAM school we collect rainwater from the roofs of our school buildings in several large water tanks. In a normal year, we collect more water in our tanks than we use in between the rainy seasons. This year because no rains fell, our tanks have gone dry and we must buy the water we use for the students to drink and for the meals we prepare. See the photos of the water tanker on its way to the school.

But a lack of rain hurts the families in our village in other ways too. Most of the families in our village do not have regular paid work outside of the home, so they rely on being able to grow vegetables to help feed their families on their small plots of land around their houses. With no rains, the crops fail and they have to buy more of the food they need to feed their families. The laws of supply and demand are also at work here and as a result of the people having to buy more food, the food prices go up. This also affects us at OHAM school, where we are seeing the costs of the meals we prepare increasing now. And let’s face it, the meals the children eat at school are even more important now as food at their homes is being stretched due to the high prices.

The tanker in the attached picture carries 17,000 litres of water to the school and costs 14,000 Kenyan Shillings which is approximately $140 . It will last around 3 weeks. That means the school is   spending nearly $50 a week on water…. $200 per month until the rains come. I know that doesn’t sound like much but if you think sponsoring a child for a month is $30 then you can understand why the school desperately needed this money to offset the water costs. 

Here is a link to the website:  https://www.ohamf.org/

Sarah Clements-Boyer

Open Hearts and Minds Foundation