Excellent! - excellentdevelopment.com

This is the story of Kwa Mukonza Self Help Group, as told to their Excellent Development Field Officer.

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"Before we built the sand dams we had a great problem due to water scarcity in our area. We were moved by this situation to meet as a group in 2004 to address the way forward. We thought of building sand dams and started collecting stones in one of the near-by rivers with the hope that one day we would get help to build a sand dam. Everyone was willing to collect the stones. The problem we were all facing motivated us to come together to address this together as a team. First we got the government to get us cement to help us build the dam but it got lost in the area and never reached us. We told our councillor Mulwa about our problem. He saw the work we had done and brought Musila, the Excellent Development Kenya (EDK) Field Manager, to visit us. Then EDK helped us and cement got to the group.

We started working with EDK on the water problem in the area. At that time we went far to get water. We went to three different points, depending on which place had the most water. Kambu river sites took us about 10 hours and were 6-11 km away from the community. Thange water points took all day, starting at 3 am and getting home at 6 pm; this was 20 km away from the community. And the Mangelete water point took us from 5 am to 6 pm and was also 20 km from the community.

We would take one whole day to fetch water for the following day. Watering animals took two days: we would not feed the animals during those days. Some animals ended up dying due to lack of water.

In the war against water scarcity another NGO helped us some time ago to construct wells along the river channel. They dug two, each 26 feet deep, supported with hand pumps. We would pump water from these wells, but as the dry season progressed water levels reduced. There were long lines for water. Each person was allowed to fill only three containers. And people would still have to go without. We used to lock the wells so people had to wait until the following day if they did not get a chance to go through the queue.

Since the sand dams we no longer have to lock the old wells because they have been recharged with water. The furthest water point now is 7 km or 4 hours away.

Sand dams have been very helpful. So far they have helped us solve our water problems. We have collected sand that stores water. EDK have helped us join hands together to work, and we are now willing to do other projects. These projects are things like better crop production, terracing, tree planting, making a demonstration farm, and starting a seed bank.

Crop Production:
A long time ago harvests would not be good and at other times we failed to harvest. We would survive on relief food. Mostly maize and beans were the crops originally grown in the area. Now we started diversifying our crops, we are growing drought resistant crops which will survive little rainfall. Vegetables are also grown along the river channel and we are able to buy from there.

We have been able to vary our diets. We have learned to use our local foods to cook differently, like chapatti from millet and sorghum and pilau from sorghum. Malnutrition incidences used to be recorded in the community but now we do not see them.

We are now intercropping: if one crop fails we can survive from the other crop. We are learning about soil cover crops and we have improved our harvests. Our income has improved because we have better harvests from terracing land and cover crops and intercropping. Because of these better harvests we have saved time and we have more time to work on important issues; and we can sell a portion of the crop.

Terracing:
Since we started working with EDK we have been digging terraces on our farms.
Only those people who had money used to terrace land, because they hired people to do that work. Now we help each other. We are now becoming wise because we can meet and share ideas from the community group, learning from each other.

Terraces have helped us control soil erosion. The soil is not washed away and we see increased production on the land. We realised that our soil used to be washed away when we noticed how much water was held by the terraces after we built them. Most of the group members have terraced half of their land.

Tree Planting:
We have been taught by EDK about tree management. We now know how to raise nurseries and how to plant trees. We have got the knowledge on how to dig holes and plant trees and how to manage them. Most of us can now collect firewood from our farms.

Seed Bank:
Most of the times we used to buy seeds from the market, but now we do not need to. The seeds are well cared for in our seed bank. In the past at times we would feed the seeds to the children when there was no food and end up with no seeds to use for planting. Now there is a control on this since we store our seeds centrally as a group. We do not decide on what to do with them individually. Now we get seeds at the right times. In the past we would get the seeds late and therefore end up planting late and get poor harvests. Now we have stored plenty of seeds, so that if we fail to have good harvests we can still obtain seeds from the store for four more seasons.

Demo Farm:
Our demonstration farm has been a place to learn: about planting, terracing to control soil erosion, and diversification of crops. We also get seeds from it for our farms and the seed store.

We never used to use manure on our farms, even though we had piles at home. Manure to us was just like waste. We used to pile it up at a point in the compound. We thought our soil was fertile and never needed manure. Now we realise that there is need to use manure on the farms, especially after learning what manure can do to the soil from the demonstration plots. We got a good harvest from the demo plots after using manure.


We want to help the group members take away much learning from the work they do with the community group. The group members have a great vision for their future."