In 2013, Sister Irene O’Neill, CSJ, Anne Hannahan and Anita Duckor made a trip to Homa Bay in Kenya, where Sister Rosita Aranita, CSJ had spent five months with the Franciscans of St. Joseph, experiencing and learning the unique local needs. Sister Rosita is a social worker from Hawai`i who had worked in new uses for fields that fruit companies abandoned. She worked with tribal leaders in Homa Bay Hills to identify 36 schools that needed better water catchment and sanitation.
Both Sisters Irene and Rosita are Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. Anne and Anita are consociates of this community in St. Paul, Minnesota. Consociates are more commonly called lay associates of religious communities. Consociates in St. Paul prefer the prefix con, which means with, stressing community.
Back in the States, Sister Irene heard Rotary Clubs commit to drill wells in dry areas of the world. “Water is such a basic need, and girls are often the water carriers,” she explains, “keeping them out of school.” But near Lake Victoria, wells produce water too acidic to use. “Their only water supply comes from the sky,” Anita confirms that it’s a condition amazing to the visitors from Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes. Access to safe water from wells wasn’t an option.
“The roads from Nairobi to Lake Victoria were bumpy. The area was hot,” Anne remembers, “but we wanted to see the needs firsthand, and we did. The water is too acidic to drink or even use to wash clothes. We saw beautiful children playing with rocks and sticks, who asked, ‘Where is Sister Rosita?’”
The Holy Spirit inspired us with a vision to help students, teachers, staff and surrounding communities by investing in the school environments.
Mary Lieta, a local educator and a consociate of the sisters, guided the three visitors to the schools, communities and houses in need of a safe water supply and sanitation. The visitors met tribal leaders and school principals of the Imbo Community Action Program (ICAP), a certified NGO (non-governmental organization) in Kenya. Imbo supports local workers in the schools, gives two sheep to each school, provides trees for planting and identifies new needs. The government pays two-thirds of the school tuition; parents must pay the rest.
“The Holy Spirit inspired us with a vision to help students, teachers, staff and surrounding communities by investing in the school environments,” says Anne. The two consociates returned home and co-founded a nonprofit to raise funds for safe water and sanitation projects. Growing Community Roots (GCR) received its non-profit status in 2014. Another consociate, lawyer John Gries, helped with the legal work pro bono.
“GCR is an all-volunteer organization supported by donations. Relationships matter,” explains Anita.
Today there are ten consociates in the Homa Bay Hills area, and four work with the Growing Community Roots NGO. The website features a bridge, the span of new relationships the water and sanitation projects have built.
The ImboCAP Board yearly visits each school to ensure toilets and water storage tanks keep working. The School Board of Management receives annual reports. These boards, composed of parents, make decisions and set priorities. Anita has visited all 16 schools with new water catchment and sanitation during three trips to Kenya. “We take photos of projects before to show the need and estimate costs, then we take photos again both during construction and after completion.”
The work of having safe water, sanitation, gardens and trees has helped girls stay in school in 16 schools.
“Our investment to date is $407,031, all from donations. We have affected the lives of 16,000 girls, 11,000 boys and 44,000 community members, although we will never really know how many are positively impacted by our educational investments,” says Anne. “We do know that our work enables systemic change for a brighter generation of Kenyan students.”
Girls stay in school when water and sanitation are available. It makes it possible to come to school during menstruation. “Lifting females out of poverty is one of the long-range benefits of our work. Staying in school opens new opportunities for girls in high school and even college,” says Anita.
Mary Lieta, Sister Rosita’s first contact, and nine other men and women have become consociates, keeping the congregation’s mission alive in a part of the world we had not known before.
Growing Community Roots
Growing Community Roots (GCR) is a nonprofit organization that raises funds for the implementation and maintenance of water catchment systems, sanitation facilities, community gardens and tree farms for schools in West Kenya.
Very fine article, very effective organization, and a most worthy cause which is making a meaningful difference in lives in a way experienced daily.