Ridgewood Rotary brings water and opportunity to Kenyan school

This pump house was funded by Ridgewood Rotary Club. Thank you for making this project possible!

Last September, we told you about Sarah Kiruri, a teacher at Kishermoruak Primary School in southern Kenya. Today we’d like to tell you about Ridgewood Rotary Club, a generous group of donors working behind the scenes to help keep Sarah’s school running smoothly.

In 2008, Ridgewood Rotary, a club from New Jersey, USA, formed a partnership with Kishermoruak Primary School. Since then, Ridgewood Rotary has supported the school through a variety of capital projects: building classrooms and administrative offices, construction of a fence around the compound and completion of a water project. Ridgewood Rotary has also provided over 300 students with hot lunches every day since the club’s partnership with the school began.

In 2008, Operation Eyesight developed a borehole in Kishermoruak as part of our efforts to prevent the spread of blinding trachoma. Our agreement with the community required that the residents provide a pump house to accommodate the diesel generator and pump needed to make the borehole operational.

Students now have clean water to wash their faces and hands. Improved sanitation helps stop the spread of blinding trachoma.

Ridgewood Rotary provided the funding needed for the pump house and, as with the other capital projects, the school’s parent council provided the water necessary to prepare mortar and plaster for the walls of the facility. In addition, a washing station was built to provide students with sinks where they could wash their hands before lunch.

The borehole now serves the community of more than 1,000 men, women and children. With the provision of fresh water, the community is now cleaner and healthier. In addition, improved sanitation helps prevent the spread of the eye disease trachoma, which Operation Eyesight is ultimately working to eliminate.

Jerry Kallman, chairman of the Ridgewood Rotary Club Foundation, and his wife, Lorraine, visit Kishermoruak Primary School every year. (You can read highlights from Jerry and Lorraine’s past trips here.)

This borehole, made operational thanks to the generosity of Ridgewood Rotary Club, now serves a community of more than 1,000 men, women and children.

Their visits always begin with a meeting with the head teacher and the parents’ council, as all parties are involved with the decision-making and implementation of every project. Like Operation Eyesight, Ridgewood Rotary understands the importance of community engagement and sustainable development.

Thank you, Ridgewood Rotary Club, for your incredible support! It’s amazing to see the real difference you have made, and will continue to make, in this community. Thank you, and congratulations on your 90^th anniversary!