The Openhand Children’s Home is a children’s home in a slum in Nairobi (Kenya) which now offers 26 children a safe home. The home was built in 2003 by two Kenyan women and is run privately. Therefore, it is fully dependent on external donations. Some of the children have already come to the house as babies and thus have only vague memories of their families. The children in the Openhand grow up sheltered and receive all important meals as well as comprehensive health care. In addition, they get the chance to get a good education and thus the hope for a more promising future.

The children’s home is surrounded by fields and has been almost self-sufficient for many years. Unfortunately, since the beginning of 2017, the water fountain of the home has supplied only very small amounts of water, which were not even sufficient for the basic supply of the entire home.

The aim of our donation was to reinsure the water supply of the children’s home and thus give the home a long-term perspective of independence. Thanks to our support in connection with some external donations we were able to drill a new well in July 2018. During the 3000 meter deep drilling, our local contact persons found so much fresh water that the children’s home and the associated agriculture as well as the surrounding village can be supplied with it.

In order to make this possible and ensure long-term water extraction, the well hole was equipped with a powerful pump at the beginning of 2019, so that 10,000 litres of water can be extracted in only 30 minutes. For this amount of water 10 hours had to be pumped before and electricity costs were generated, which the children’s home could not bear alone.

Through the new water extraction, the agricultural area around the children’s home can now be watered again and fruits, vegetables, and maize for the children can be grown. The home can now even sell part of the water to the villagers.

The money earned will be used to finance the electricity for the home as well as the salaries of the employees and thus lead to even more independence of the children’s home.