Village Volunteers Blog
Sirua Aulo Clean Water Project
The mission of the Sirua Aulo Clean Water Project is to provide reliable and clean water to the Maasai people who live in the Kapune region of Kenya. Fill out our Interest Form to get started! Explore more programs in Kenya, Ghana, India, and Nepal.The goal of the...
Sam Tuttleman Speaks of His Experience in India Volunteering with CORD
Interview conducted by Intern Jessica Miller From providing a network of volunteering opportunities abroad to working on collaborative initiatives, Village Volunteers seeks to empower communities around the world. With a variety of initiatives and partnerships with...
In Rural India, Menstruation is a Challenge for Gender Equality
For many of us, menstruation is a normal process that occurs every month. While we might suffer from minor annoyances such as pain and discomfort, it doesn’t usually have impact our personal and professional development. For many girls in the world, this is not the...
Dance Community in Seattle Impacts the Lives of Women
Graining Mills: the Khalwenge Posho Milling Project helps a local village produce their own food, by Regina Williams, Journalist Intern from Seattle University. The Posho Mill project in Endebess Sub County was funded through WASSA Dance, an annual Thanks-giving...
Peter Kithene: The Man Who Turned His Hope for the Future into Reality.
Since the 2005 opening of his first Mama Maria Clinic, Peter Kinthene has seen remarkable success in his home at Muhuru Bay, a small village located near the border of Tanzania, but also in the work he has done. In 2007, Peter was the recipient of a CNN Hero Award for...
From Death’s Door to Mama na Dada
From Death's Door To Mama Na Dada by Michelle Henderson Living in Kunya village has been a remarkable experience thus far. It could not be farther or further from San Francisco, aside from the fact that it is right on the coast of Lake Victoria, so I enjoy beautiful...
A Simple Solution to Water Borne Diseases By Joshua Machinga
In Kenya, preventable water-borne diseases like diarrhea are the leading cause of death for children under the age of five. Over one million Kenyan families lack access to clean water. They rely on boiling water to make it safe, which in addition to being...
Local Farmers Tackling the Loss of Biodiversity
INDIGENOUS SEED PRODUCTION IN KENYA The Green Revolution (AGRA) is considered a milestone in Kenya’s quest for self-reliance in food grain production. The revolution has helped countries like India to increase grain production from a modest 50 million ton in 1950-51...
A Passion for International Work by Elizabeth Lucas, RSW
I remember sitting in Richard Gregory’s Community Development class at Medicine Hat College, being shown a film on female circumcision and wanting to do a field trip to Africa. That was in 2000 and in 2010 I realized my dream through an organization called Village...
Goat Dairy Project At Lenana HS: A Report
Last year Village Volunteers helped raise funds to establish a goat dairy farm at Lenana Girls High School (Kitale, Kenya) through the annual WASSA Thanksgiving Day Dance, held in Seattle, WA. Thanks to generous donations, Common Ground for Africa (the umbrella...
This Is Social Media, So Share What Matters
By Marlena Szymczak Yes, there are good people left in this world; Make their actions known. I had a teacher in high school--Mr. Weiss. I had him for AP Macroeconomics. Yet, when I came into his classroom, he resembled much more than the everyday Econ teacher. He...
Science Center at Lenana Girls’ High School in Kenya Inspires New Learning & Opportunity
By Joshua Machinga There is no denying that deeply entrenched gender discrimination creates a bleak outlook for women and community development in rural Kenya. Through our work with village communities, we have realized that for larger payoffs, we have to put...
Recent Successes with the SiSi Fund in Western Kenya
By Joshua Machinga Kitale, Kenya: Last year Elizabeth Namaswa received a small-business loan of $200 from one of Village Volunteers’ alumni volunteers, which she invested in the green banana farming project in her village near Kitale. This project, started by Common...
Hope at Muhuru Bay: How two Village Volunteers projects in Kenya are helping families cope with sickle cell disease and malnutrition
Mama Maria Clinic, Muhuru Bay, Kenya: Earlier this month, several women – community health workers, ‘opinion leaders’, village elders, mothers of children with sickle cell anemia – participated in a training workshop on planting, harvesting and using the moringa tree...
Blair’s Volunteering Experience at a Nepalese Farm
By Blair Sando My ten-week visit to Nepal was nothing short of remarkable … and I have Mountain View Eco Farm to thank for that. Though my journey to Nepal was not easy, after a few short days I began to really dive in to my role on the farm. I began to learn more...
Lenana Girls’ High School: A Critical & Effective Response To A Multi problem
BY JOSHUA MACHINGA Common Ground for Africa (CGA) started Lenana Girls High School (LGHS) to help provide quality education for bright, motivated Kenyan girls, who otherwise would not have access to secondary education due to extreme poverty, helping them, their...
A Glimpse Of New Light
BY DINA BENNETT Come Along With Me…… Sangita Dey was driven from her village home by profound poverty. Actually, that’s not strictly accurate. Profound poverty didn’t drive her from her home – it drove her to believe a man who came to her village and promised that he...
Education is my life – A journey that led to the Sirua Aulo Academy
By Emmanuel Leina Tasur John Dewey said “Education is not preparation for life, education is life itself.” How true that is. I strongly believe that education in whatever form is a lifelong quest and no one should ever be tired of learning until their day here ends....
Lenana Girls Helping Other Young Women
LENANA GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL DAUGHTERS OF CHARITY. Lenana Girls High School Daughters of Charity is an organization developed by the girls at Lenana Girls High School for girls in high school and beyond. The organization started in 2014 with the aim of opening more doors...
A New Child Care Center in Kenya and a Phenomenal New Volunteer Opportunity!
Sister Freda is all heart. Any volunteer who works with her expresses how fortunate he/she is to have worked alongside someone so utterly immersed in service. But while most of what we talk about regarding the Sister Freda Foundation has to do with the copious medical...