Join Us In Building Hope for
Kenya's Most Vulnerable
TOTAL GOAL: $5,700
Phase 1: $3,700 COMPLETED 4/5/2024
Phase 2: $2,000 Launched 4/8/2024 (in progress)
In the heart of Kenya, near Lake Victoria, lives a community of people that have come together to impact the lives of the most vulnerable. They embody resilience, hope, and strength. They are K5Village Project, led by Omito Abraham Owuor.
As of April 5, 2024, we raised enough funds to help K5Village substantially complete a multi-use structure that will serve as a sanctuary for five orphaned children, a haven for volunteers and community members, and a lifeline for clean water in an area where access is scarce. We also raised sufficient funds to purchase and install a 10,000L tank and gutter system to collect and store a 3-5 month supply of precious rainwater.
Between the 45 community members who have contributed sweat equity and the more than 25 US donors, we finished the structure a week earlier than planned. THANK YOU!
Omondi, age 14, supervises the first run of water collected from the 10,000L rainwater tank.
Phase 2 ->Doors, Beds, and Electricity
Starting April 8th, we invite you to help us raise an additional $2,000 for PHASE TWO towards a $2,300 total budget. This additional ask increases our total project budget to $5,700.
Phase Two has four components:
- FINISHING: painting and flooring ($520) COMPLETE
- CHILDREN'S BEDS: purchase of beds and bedding ($320)
- ELECTRIFICATION: we will bring power to the house! ($1,300)
- LABOR ($160)
Donors will continue to be thanked with personalized letters and donor support stickers. Contributions of $50 or more will plant a tree in your name or in the name of someone you designate. Contributions of $25 or $35 can request to receive a water bottle carrier crocheted by Emily. You can donate here or purchase on Etsy directly: https://www.etsy.com/shop/RainmakerDesign.
Talia, Ashley, and Rhyan in their Sunday best put their stamp of approval on the finishing touches! (Sunday, April 7, 2024)
Tank and gutters installed, walls complete, concrete perimeter set!
The house in mid-May 2024 after exterior painting.
Fundraising Report on Phase 1
Goal $2,900 (Stretch Goal Achieved $3,520)
The K5Village Community Raised the Roof in One Day
What follows is our original fundraising request for Phase 1.
Talia Lea, age 4, awaits her new home. She has been living with her grandmother who can no longer afford to feed and shelter her.
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On February 3, 2024, 45 community members and supporters of the K5 Village permaculture farm in Rangwe, Kenya came together to erect a new four-room structure. They did it in one day.
Stones and soil were removed, poles erected, roof beams secured, mud walls packed in, and galvanized steel sheets put in place.
To get the project to its current half-finished state, Omito not only mobilized community volunteers for the one-day build but also sourced $2,000 by selling three of his bulls, raised $720 in donations from generous friends worldwide, and harvested 90 poles (valued at $450 on the market) from his own Pine Tree forest that he planted five years ago.
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Your Generous Support is Needed To Complete the Structure!
While most of the structural work is now done, it will take five more days of paid labor and additional materials to complete the building. Your help is needed to fund the following remaining work:
- Laying an external slab to prevent water from entering the structure. This requires ballast, cement and sand mixed with water proof powder to cover the interior floor and surrounding pavement.
- Installation of a 10,000 liter tank plus gutters
- The labor of 10 people over 5 days
- Transport of materials
BUDGET TO COMPLETE THE STRUCTURE: $2,900
- 40 bags of cement x $10 = $400
- Full truck of sand (2 x $250) = $500
- Full truck of ballast = $160
- 5 bags of waterproof powder = $20
- 10,000 Liter Tank plus Gutters = $1,250
- Labor (10 people for 5 days) = $500
- Transport of Supplies = $70
- TOTAL: $2,900
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Thank you for your generous support for this life-changing, community-building project!
Together we can give Traci, Omondi, Asha, Talia, and Joshua a place to call home!
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READ ON FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT K5VILLAGE AND HOW IT MEETS COMMUNITY NEEDS
K5Village is a ten-year old non-governmental community-based organization, founded by Omito together with four other community members, with a mission to to build an environmentally-sustainable, self-sufficient, and empowered community.
They are addressing the need to house and support orphans by building one structure at a time. This will be the fourth structure on K5Village property. Three structures already house up to 15 children; the new structure will expand its capacity to shelter 20 children.
The structure built in 2018 thanks to Emily's Walk for Water fundraiser.
K5Village does more than shelter children. They use sustainable agriculture techniques, including permaculture principles, to produce vegetables, grow bananas and other fruit, and maintain a healthy stand of pine trees. They also maintain cows, sheep and chicken. These activities not only feed those who rely on K5Village and provide a source of income for the project, but they offer a living and tangible classroom to teach vulnerable and disadvantaged community members how to uplift themselves through sustainable agricultural work.
Omito (at right) with children in the garden.
K5Village leverages international donor support to provide children with educational supplies in support of its literacy mission.
Omito, at left, holds a community training on how "swales" (mounds) catch water and direct it to where it's needed, which is in the soil. Instead of water running off or pooling above ground, swales direct it downward into an underground reservoir.
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Meet Omito Abraham Owuor, K5Village Project Director
Omito Abraham Owuor, age 33, is a permaculture qualified trained teacher and a founder of the farming group and project. Ten years ago, in 2014, he formed the project with four other young permaculture farmers from different communities: Kagola, Kowino, Kaduk, Kangaga & Kajuang’ (hence the name K5).
"It's been now ten years since I started this project. It was started 2014 after completing my high school. I could not proceed to college due to lack of fees. My father died while I was doing my last final exam in 2013, leaving behind 8 children with my mum taking care of us. My mum could not afford to pay my fee, she had to take care of our basic needs, to feed her 8 children and pay for other siblings' education fees. In 2014 I come with the idea to apply some knowledge to our community using techniques I learn in high school to help our youth. I started a small vegetable farm using organic materials. More youth have interest to join me. I taught them. We created K5Village."
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Location of K5Village
K5Village is located in Rangwe which is in Homa Bay County. Homa Bay is adjacent to Lake Victoria and is 161 miles Northwest of Nairobi in Kenya.
