Karimu International Help Foundation

Karimu's work during 2022 is detailed on our website at httpswwwkarimufoundationorgourpro... The most notable accomplishment of Karimu International Help Foundations unpaid all-volunteer staff, living outside Tanzania but in regular online communication with the paid employees of the registered Tanzanian NGO called Karimu Heart and Spirit Organization (KAHESO), was the construction of the bulk of a system to bring clean water to Arri Ward. More precisely, the system brings clean water to within no more than 500 meters of every Arri Ward household. Arri Ward borders Ayalagaya Ward, where Karimu had worked almost exclusively since its founding in 2008. Even though the completion of a water project for Ayalagaya Ward in 2018 had given Karimus officers confidence that they could do the same for Arri Ward, the challenge was much greater because Arri Ward extends across a vastly larger geographic area than Ayalagaya Ward does, and Arri Ward is also more remote from the water source high on the slope of the Rift Valley escarpment that overlooks both wards. The elevation of the clean-water source means that the water flow is gravity-driven; even so, the larger size of Arri Ward has required the laying of many more miles of pipe than had been needed in order to complete the Ayalagaya Ward water project. Bringing clean water to within 500 meters of a household is unimpressive by American standards, but doing this in Ayalagaya Ward has saved girls an average of four hours per day of time devoted to fetching water to the home; it is possible that the savings of time will be even greater in Arri Ward. The total cost of the Arri Ward water project, slated for completion during Spring 2023, will approximate $1.2 million, about half again as much as the total cost of the Ayalagaya Ward water project. But Karimu also pursued a number of other major construction projects during 2022. Karimus five-year Strategic Plan, put together in 2018 in consultation with community leaders from every corner of Ayalagaya Ward, had identified the improvement of healthcare for all local residents and the improvement of sanitation for schoolchildren as Ayalagaya Wards two most important priorities. Thus, expansion of the wards Karimu-built Dareda Kati clinic into what the Tanzanian federal government designates a Health Center, which can accommodate overnight patient stays and performance of a wide range of minor surgical procedures, along with the completion of modern bathroom facilities for all of Ayalagaya Wards handful of schools rivaled the Arri Ward water project in demands made upon Karimus financial and personnel resources during 2022. In addition, the goal of saving countless hours of walking time for schoolchildren, including both boys and girls, motivated the construction of modern kitchens for all Ayalagaya Ward schools. Many students in need of hot lunches have walked home to eat in the middle of the day and then not returned to school in the afternoon because of the length of the walk. But those long mid-day walks are no longer necessary now that hot lunches can be prepared in Karimu-built kitchens at every Ayalagaya Ward school. Not incidentally, the school cooks who previously had struggled to prepare a fraction of the needed lunches by cooking over open fires have enjoyed rapid and dramatic improvements in their health