A Well for the Maasai Community of Esiteti, Kenya

The Giving Exchange recently partnered with Well Aware to help establish a clean water well for the Esiteti village inside Amboseli National Park at the border of Kenya and Tanzania. The Esiteti belong to a community of 18 small Maasai villages, each with approximately 100 residents who, before the Covid-19 pandemic, were reliant on tourism as a means of generating income. However, the decline in visitors exacerbated their existing economic challenges. Additionally, prolonged drought conditions created devastating circumstances for humans and livestock alike.

The village women spent precious hours each day trekking several miles round trip in search of water. Many children even had to drop out of school to help gather water. Now that a local well has been established the children can return to school. By eliminating the time-consuming journey for water, the community looks forward to establishing an income-generating program on their land (such as a greenhouse).

Learning how to farm vegetables will increase their agricultural knowledge, foster independence and sustainability as a community, and add important nutrition to their diet.

The Esiteti are very thankful for their new well and say, “Ashe Oleng” (masaai language) – Thank you very much!