By Frank Mustac, Special Writer
Representatives from a local non-profit briefed the Hopewell Borough Council on the organization’s continuing work in Kenya.
Andrew Jackson and David Angwenyi from the Hopewell-Keroka Alliance (HKA) spoke to council members on June 2 about the group’s fund raising to improve health, education and infrastructure in an area of western Kenya.
The current initiative is a project to supply fresh water to residents in the Nyankoba Ward, a 3-square-mile rural area inhabited by mostly pastoral farmers about 3 miles northwest of Keroka.
Mr. Jackson lives in Pennington and is a professor of engineering at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Originally from Kenya, Mr. Angwenyi is a science teacher at Hopewell Valley Central High School with a background in global public service leadership.
HKA organizes frequent trips to Kenya with students from Central High School to help fund and work on service projects in the Keroka area. The 2016 student trip will be in July. Hopewell Valley high schoolers have traveled to Kenya with HKA members six times since 2007.
“We’re now in the process of developing a water company,” Mr. Jackson told the Hopewell Borough Council on June 2.
The water company initiative comes on the heels of some fairly recent successes. In January 2014, the Hopewell-Keroka Alliance was invited by the newly formed county government in that part of Kenyato apply for funds to drill a borehole to access fresh water from underground, according to information published on the website hkalliance.org.
The HKA organization sent $1,500 to fund the required geologist’s report on water availability and environmental impact to complete the application forms. In May 2015, the application was successful and the county allocated 2.5 million Kenya shillings, about $25,000, to drill a borehole.
HKA also sent $14,330 raised by students to HKA’s partner organization of volunteers in Keroka to buy a 25-by-100-foot plot of land to locate the borehole, water tanks and a pump and motor. The cost of the land is $1,800. The remaining funds are to fund installation of the pump and construction of the tanks and a distribution system, which requires additional work.
“The way they get water right now is they walk to this little stream which is fed by rainfall,” Mr. Jackson said. “That (stream) dries up about two months twice every year. Then they have to walk another mile down a hill to a spring, and that’s a lot of walking. It’s a time-saving issue.”
“I would like to see them put five boreholes in that area so they can all have water to their houses,” he said.
The water company, Mr. Jackson said, will be the responsibility of local officials.
“We feel the community is ready to manage their own affairs,” he said.
Mr. Jackson said he also hoped there could a partnership with Hopewell Borough.
“I would be certainly willing to give you some guidance and help if you would like,” said Borough Councilman Schuyler “Sky” Morehouse, who is a professional engineer and owner of Morehouse Engineering in Hopewell. “I have done five projects with Engineers Without Borders in West Africa.”
“There is lot of know-how in the Hopewell Valley area,” said Mr. Morehouse, who also offered the names of individuals he knows who could also be of help to HKA.
Borough Mayor Paul Anzano asked Mr. Jackson and Councilman Morehouse to talk and report back to council with suggestions how Hopewell Borough as a community might get involved.
The mayor even suggested establishing a sister-city relationship with Keroka.
The alliance held a flea market in April to raise money for their efforts. The group said then it had raised $170,000 in its first eight years.
