We're getting married! As part of our celebration, instead of a traditional gift, we would love it if guests could make a donation to our selected charity, Sand Dams Worldwide, and in doing so, help support a rural farming community in southeast Kenya to become food and water secure.

Sand Dams Worldwide is a UK charity working with local in-country partners to help vulnerable rural dryland communities to build sand dams; a sustainable and cost-effective rainwater harvesting technology that can capture up to 40 million litres of water, replenishing every rainy season. That water is stored safe from disease and evaporation within the sand. It’s easily extractable via pipework connected to hand-pumps and taps, with one sand dam providing enough year-round water for over 1,000 people. For more information about how sand dams work, watch this short animation: 

Sand dams play a significant role in mitigating the effects of climate change, including reversing land degradation. They raise groundwater levels through slowing down the rate of run-off and capturing rainwater that would otherwise be lost as run-off, while allowing most water to continue downstream. The slowing down of water runoff allows water to infiltrate the soil, resulting in vegetation recovery, reduced erosion and restored degraded land and regreened environments.

While Sand Dams Worldwide’s work often starts with a sand dam, it’s certainly not where it ends. Once water and time are available, a wealth of opportunities arise. The charity also works through partners to advise communities on improved climate-smart agriculture techniques, such as terracing, developing seed banks and the planting of drought-resistant crops and trees; empowering families to grow enough food to eat, store and sell in the face of climate change and drought.

Here are some ways in which your donations could help a rural farming community in southeast Kenya to build sand dam, and make a living from farming:

• £25 could provide a community with 4 bags of cement for their sand dam
• £30 could provide a dryland farmer with drought-tolerant seeds, to grow a reliable source of fresh food for their children
• £40 could supply a community with a wheelbarrow, used to move heavy materials on the dam site
• £60 could provide a community with a roll of barbed wire, to reinforce and strengthen their sand dam during construction
• £100 could provide 500 seedlings and a spray pump, to protect the tree nursery from decimation by insects
• £120 could provide a community with a wheelbarrow and 10 bags of cement, to help them construct their sand dam
• £214 could provide a set of 25 metal shovels needed to mix cement

Please donate what you can. Thank you so much for supporting this special cause, and being part of our special day.

Love Ron & Anna xxx

Sand Dams Worldwide