Excellent! - excellentdevelopment.com

Standing in his nursery, Muendo Mdambuki proudly surveys the lush tomato plants and kale which have changed not only his, but many of the lives of the villagers in Kangemi.

“I am now the new Muendo, the old Muendo is no more. . .” he says, describing how his life has changed over the last twelve months.

Muendo has lived all his life in Kangemi, an arid region of south eastern Kenya, where he has had to sustain his family from the fruits of a small farm plot. When the rains failed to come four years in a row and his crops failed, Muendo found it very hard to support his family. During the hard times that followed Muendo, his wife and three children subsisted on one simple meal of ugali – a thick corn meal mash - per day.

“Our children were forced to withdraw from school because they were too hungry to study” he reflects. After being asked what he did then, in the light of severe food shortage, with good humoured stoicism he noted, “I adjusted my stomach…”

With little food and no rain, their lives were determined by the daily journey to get water. “We had to walk 10 kilometres every day to get water. The trek took almost the entire day and my wife had to leave the children at home alone”.

Without produce to sell, Muendo was forced to go elsewhere in search of work while his wife stayed behind. “I was out trying to find any kind of work. When I was lucky, I would find work that paid 70 shillings (50 pence) per day. But it was never enough to relieve the hunger. It was a very hard time. . .”

But with the support of Excellent Development and its partner organisation the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) - an American NGO - the community ran a Food for Work programme to keep the community together and to build a sand dam across a seasonal river valley to create a year round source of water.

“If you don’t catch the little water that does come down this valley, you cannot go and get it back,” declares Joshua Mukusya of Excellent Development.

The objective of a sand dam is to “harvest” the little water that does run in the valley in such a way that it recharges the underground water table. A concrete barrier is built across the valley. When the rare downpours come, sand is washed in behind the dam leaving life-giving water safely stored beneath.

Before the sand dam, the search for water defined the daily routine for members of the community. But now, having a guaranteed supply of water close by has enabled Muendo to grow enough food to feed his family and even provide an additional modest income. Having water has also meant his children are now in school everyday. His two daughters are doing very well, perhaps well enough to go on to the national school he proudly dreams of.

For the first time in many years Muendo can plan his future with more certainty.

“Now I am the new Muendo. I am the first person in our village to grow vegetables using water scooped from the sand. I am also the first to earn any money from selling vegetables.” Pointing to his small plot of tomatoes and kale, Muendo relished the new found emotion of being a creator, an artist. “This small plot earned me 1,300 shillings (£10.00) last year. And that is in cash! In this village, we rarely have cash like this.”

Muendo then led the way to a larger plot of newly planted tomatoes and kale. “With this planting I hope to earn 4,500 shillings or more.” As well as these crops he also grows trees to feed his animals plus medicinal varieties which are used ceremonially and for healing illness.

“This sand dam has changed everything for us. My three children are back in school. My wife no longer has to trek kilometres for water. I am able to help others. I can even give some money to the church.”

“The old Muendo is no more. I am now the new Muendo"