About an hour drive from the closest store with supplies (including bottled water), this particular Samburu tribe lives on land that has been passed down from generation to generation, making it very difficult to leave. The landscapes are beautiful. The people are peaceful and have plenty of cattle. The largest problem they face is clean water.
Similar to the Masaai tribe, the Samburu are generally a nomadic tribe that care for their cattle with lots of respect and that have learned to live off the land. They have large families, with the husbands having multiple wives and many children. When the boys are old enough they will take the cattle out grazing for sometimes months at a time, surviving on a mixture of cows blood and milk to drink.
With the only clean water source near them being a trickle of water from an old well pipe, this source of water becomes overcrowded and leaves wives and children waiting a full day just to fill up their water containers. Now they are forced to travel farther by foot to find additional water sources. The most consistent water source for these families is a riverbed roughly 4km away, in which they will have to walk back with a full container. The riverbed water is pulled out of a 6ft hole in the ground to access the water. It is ALWAYS the womans job to fetch water for the family. When a daughter is old enough, she will join her mother in retrieving water. Because only women do this chore, they try to travel in groups to protect themselves from animals and being harassed by other men. This particular husband we spent the most time with had recently lost a wife from an elephant. This is a dangerous and time consuming chore.
Good news is they have a consistent water source (albeit dangerous and time consuming). The only problem is it’s contaminated with bacteria that causes them to get sick often. They must boil the water in hopes of preventing sickness. There are a lot of global statistics showing the dangers of dirty water for mostly children. So while they may have access to water, we cannot neglect the fact that so many people are getting sick from that water.
Without access to clean water, they are unable to have proper sanitation, they are unable to grow food, or even bathe. They told us bathing was only reserved for the times when they have extra water.
We were there to produce a film showing what it is like for a family in these areas to live without access to clean water. We also had hopes to bring them a water well through promoting the film. Thanks to Maranatha Volunteers International, these thousands of Samburu will have clean water for many years to come. Water to drink, bathe, prepare food, and hopefully even grow food.
This site is linked to an organization (Maranatha Volunteers International) that will apply 100% of your donation to the well drilling. Regular updates will be posted and there will be a link to follow the drilling.
