Programs

  • Program 1 [2020]

    THE MAIN PROJECT SUPPORTED BY IWHA IS WITH THE COMMUNITY BASED ORGANIZATION, FRIENDS OF THE OLD (FOTO) IN LOWER NYAKACH, KENYA. THE TOP PRIORITY IS TO ELIMINATE WATERBORNE DISEASE WHERE UNIMPROVED DRINKING WATERSOURCES ARE HIGHLY CONTAMINATED AND WATERBORNE DISEASE WAS COMMON BEFORE THE IWHA-FOTO INTERVENTION THAT STARTED IN 2012. FROM JANUARY TO MARCH 2020 FOTO STAFF IN 13 LOCATIONS LED 2 TRAINING SESSIONS PER MONTH FOR A TOTAL OF 78 TRAININGS FOR THE YEAR. AFTER MARCH IN-PERSON TRAININGS WERE DISCONTINUED. FOTO CONTINUED TO DISTRIBUTE AQUAGUARD TO COMMUNITIES IN LOWER NYAKACH. 9,312 BOTTLES DISTRIBUTED FREE EACH MONTH TO THE 13 CHIEFS AND VILLAGE ELDERS IN EACH LOCATION. TO ADDRESS FOOD INSECURITY 2,600 PKGS OF SORGHUM SEED WERE DISTRIBUTED TO THE MOST VULNERABLE HOUSEHOLDS. OTHER ITEMS DISTRIBUTED WERE 20,000 MASKS TO MEET THE PANDEMIC REQUIREMENTS.THE EDUCATION OF ORPHAN GIRLS WAS HALTED DUE TO PANDEMIC RESTRICTIONS CAUSING A FOOD CRISI IN THESE HOUSEHOLDS. THE 53 SPONSORED GIRLS RECEIVED A HALF SACK OF MAIZE AND ALL 32 STAFF MEMBERS ALSO RECEIEVED THE HALDF SACK OF MAIZE. THE GIRLS CONTINUED TO BE TRAINED IN TAILORING.COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN THE USA AND THE COMMUNITIES WERE MAINTINED BY THIS ORGANIZATION TO BE ABLE TO RESPOND TO COMMUNITY NEEDS DURING THE SHUTDOWN. SEVERAL WATER TESTING WORKSHOPS, IN KENYA, THE NETHERLANDS, ARGENTINA, NAIROBI AND SAN FRANCISCO, CA.
    Geographies
    Not indicated
    Dates
    Jan 1, 2020 – Dec 31, 2020
    Source
    990
    No causes provided
    No populations provided
    –
    $116K

  • Waterborne Disease Elimination Initiative

    2023 was a challenging year for Kenyans, particularly half the population with few resources as the Kenya Shilling's value to the dollar continued to decline, 123 KSh/$ in January, 2023 to 151 KSh/$ in December, 2023.As in previous years, however, IWHA's support of the Friends of the OLD (FOTO) made a positive impact on the 70,000 citizens of Lower Nyakach. FOTO's main project is implementing a replicable strategy to eliminate waterborne disease for the 70,000 citizens of Lower Nyakach who have unimproved, contaminated drinking water sources. The strategy involves FOTO staff conducting water microbiology testing at the community level with a Portable Microbiology Laboratory (PML) to demonstrate that drinking water sources pose a very high disease risk. Treating water with the chlorine solution Aquaguard, kills the germs and makes the water safe to drink. Lower Nyakach is the one place in the world where a community-based organization has eliminated waterborne disease. The FOTO project is an example that could be replicated in villages worldwide where two billion people do not have access to safe drinking water.From January through December 2023, FOTO staff in all 13 locations led 2 training sessions on water testing with the PML & Aquaguard disinfection every month for a total of 312 training sessions during the year. "All good things must be done again and again forever," applies to teaching about always treating drinking water in Lower Nyakach. IWHA provides FOTO with funds to buy and distribute 9,312 bottles of Aquaguard every month to households and schools.As in previous years since 2011, IWHA funded monthly distribution of free reading glasses to the elderly in a location, to restore the dignity and usefulness of reading and doing close work, as there are no inexpensive reading glasses in Kenya. IWHA sent FOTO 11 boxes with 2362 reading glasses in 2023. At each distribution, IWHA provided $100 extra so that FOTO could provide glasses recipients with a good meal of rice and beans in addition to mandazis (donut-like pastries) and Kenya tea (with milk and spices). The good meal was likely the best food many glasses recipients had for weeks.To address the problem of hunger and food insecurity, IWHA once again provided FOTO with funds to purchase and distribute 2600 2kg packages of certified Serado sorghum seed to 200 impoverished elderly households in each of the 13 locations, a total of 2,600 packages distributed. Households were selected by consultation with chiefs and village elders. Harvesting sorghum in June & July provided 2-3 90kg bags of sorghum to be the main source of household food for much of the year.IWHA provided FOTO with funds to buy and distribute 9,000 2024 wall calendars (17x22"), three pages each with 4 months per page. The main photo on the first page, January-April, was of the FOTO staff in front of the FOTO office wearing the FOTO polo shirts IWHA funded in July, 2023. The second page features FOTO staff member Seline Osian demonstrating water testing methods to grade school children. The third page main photo is the exuberance of children holding Aquaguard bottles. The annual FOTO wall calendar is highly popular as it is the only calendar households are likely to receive to keep track of the days of the week and their appointments and obligations. The wall calendar also daily reminds people of FOTO's projects that benefit everyone in Lower Nyakach. The calendars include IWHA's logo and the statement in the Kenya 2010 constitution that all Kenyans have a right to safe drinking water. The Kenya government doesn't take that seriously, but IWHA and FOTO do. To recognize and thank the 13 chiefs, 27 assistant chiefs, and 274 village elders who assist in FOTO's monthly Aquaguard distribution and other activities, IWHA buys useful items from National Pen and sends them to FOTO to distribute to chiefs, elders, government officials, community leaders, and teachers. In 2023 FOTO distributed 3,000 superball stick pens, 700 Colorama 4 color pens, 500 2023 pocket monthly calendars amd 2.500 2024 pocket monthly calendar, and 100 spiral flip note pads. All of these items have imprinted on them: "Friends of the Old (FOTO/Lower Nyakach, Kenya/Eliminate Waterborne Disease." This is a unique and effective way to provide useful items to thousands of citizens that generates enormous good will for FOTO.Another unique activity was started in 2014 at the request of FOTO project director Dinah Chienjo during her week-long visit to Sacramento: the sponsorship of orphan girls to attend secondary school. The grandparent caretakers have no money to support their granddaughter. What started with 12 girls and 6 sponsors in 2014 grew to 60 girts in 2023, including 12 new Form 1 girls. The girls are sponsored by 21 US IWHA donors. In addition to school fees, uniforms and school supplies, FOTO arranged special activities for the girls at the FOTO office during the two short term breaks, with an emphasis on academic skills, and a week at the FOTO office for each girl in November & December, during the break at the end of the 2023 academic year. During this week the girls used their tailoring skills to make a school uniform for the 2024 academic year and they were introduced to solar cooking and solar water pasteurization with the simple Cookit solar cooker. The Cookit was the main focus of the Sunny Solutions project in Nyakach, 2003-2008, which Dinah Chienjo led for Solar Cookers International, and Bob visited each year.IWHA provides precious employment and pays monthly social security and national health care costs for a total of 31 people: two women in each of the 13 locations who deliver FOTO projects and act as social workers for the elderly; Project Director Dinah Chienjo; Project Coordinator Joseph Abende; Computer instructor Wycliffe Ade; Office Assistant Susan Awino; and Security Officer Fredrick Orondo. IWHA increased their monthly salary by 1,000 KSh in February and September to keep the buying power of the Kenya Shilling what it was at the end of 2022.IWHA also supports Faustine Odaba, Mama Solar, in Nairobi, to promote water testing with the PML, solar water pasteurization and solar cooking using a Cookit. Faustine is the world's leading solar cook, first introducing the Cookit to refugees in the Kakuma Refugee camp in 1995 and being the main trainer for Solar Cookers lnternational's East Africa office in Nairobi. Faustine also assisted Bob Metcalf on water testing workshops all over Kenya from 2002-2013. It continues to be important to keep Faustine's expertise available in solar and water testing since SCI closed the East Africa office in 2011. IWHA provided a monthly stipend and funded Faustine's travel to Moishe; Tanzania in February to lead water testing and solar cooking/pasteurization workshops with the small non-profit organization, Water at the Door, which trains men to cover open wells and use a pump to fetch water. Nadia Mitchell, volunteer CEO of Water to the Door, discovered the PML online, zoomed with Bob, and has been using the PML tests since Faustine's training.The use of the PML for water testing at the community level, and FOTO's 'The Goal is Zero Waterborne Disease' strategy needs to be known and replicated worldwide.On June 5, Bob Metcalf gave a virtual presentation to the Water in Africa Conference: "Drinking water sources are contaminated and there's no wood for cooking: Microbiology and solar solutions in Lower Nyakach, Kenya."The most significant event was a Water Testing Workshop Bob and Kehinde Eniola led on June 15 at the American Society for Microbiology annual meeting in Houston. The workshop was for ASM Country Representatives, and microbiologists from 16 countries participated in the hands-on workshop. To enable the ASM Ambassadors to immediately share these methods with colleagues and students after returning to their home countries, participants were provided with a PML to perform 25 Colilert and Petrifilm tests, and a flash drive with teaching materials to enable immediate presentations. The next day, Metcalf summarized the workshop and showed the Petrifilm and Colilert results to ASM CEO Stefano Bertuzzi and ASM President Colleen Kraft of Emery University. ASM appreciates these workshops and will arrange another water testing workshop for ASM International Country representatives at the ASM annual meeting in Atlanta, June 13, 2024.On August 12, Bob gave a zoom presentation, "The Human Right to Safe Drinking WaterStarts with Water Quality Testing at the Community level" to CAWST, the Center for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology, a Canadian NGO that has a big USAID grant to produce online modules. CAWST's module "drinking water quality testing" has obsolete microbiology methods. Bob sent CAWST seven PMLs in August, 2022 along with flash drives with power points and documents, and WAPls for CAWST to use in its Calgary office and six countries where CAWST has Water Excellence Training
    Geographies
    Not indicated
    Dates
    Jan 1, 2023 – Dec 31, 2023
    Source
    990
    No causes provided
    No populations provided
    –
    –

  • Program 1 [2025]

    The Friends of the Old (FOTO) office is in the town of Katito in Lower Nyakach, Kenya. The biggest city nearby, an hour by matatu, is Kisumu, where FOTO has its post office box. The FOTO staff has 28 women, two each in the 13 locations who deliver FOTO projects and act as social workers for the elderly, Project Director Dinah Chienjo and Office Assistant Lydia Treeza Ouma and three men (Project Coordinator Joseph Abende, Computer Instructor Michael Chienjo, and Security Officer Fredrick Orondo). IWHA pays their monthly salary, social security, and national health insurance fees.FOTOs main project is implementing a replicable strategy to eliminate waterborne disease for the 70,000 citizens of Lower Nyakach who have only unimproved, contaminated drinking water sources. The strategy involves FOTO staff conducting microbial testing at the community level using the 10 ml Colilert test and the 1.0 ml quantitative E. coli Petrifilm test to demonstrate to citizens that drinking water sources pose a very high disease risk. IWHA monthly provides FOTO with funds for distribution of 9,300 150 ml bottles of Aquaguard chlorine to households and schools to disinfect contaminated water sources. Colilert and Petrifilm testing before and after treating water with Aquaguard provide striking visual evidence that treating water with Aquaguard kills bacteria and makes water safe to drink.The FOTO project in Lower Nyakach is the one place in the world where a community-based organization has implemented a strategy to eliminate waterborne disease. The FOTO strategy could be replicated in villages worldwide where two billion people do not have access to safe drinking water. As in previous years since 2011, IWHA funded monthly distribution of ~200 reading glasses to the elderly in one of the 13 locations, to restore the dignity and usefulness of reading and doing close work, as there are no inexpensive reading glasses in Kenya. Knowing that hunger is widespread in Lower Nyakach, at each distribution, IWHA provided $100 extra so that the FOTO staff could provide glasses recipients with a filling meal of rice and beans in addition to mandazis (donut-like pastries) and Kenya tea (with milk and spices). There is much joy at the distributions, as old friends see each other again, they have a good meal, and they receive a quality pair of reading glasses. To address the problem of hunger and food insecurity, IWHA once again provided FOTO with funds to purchase and distribute 2600 2kg packages of certified Serado sorghum seed to 200 impoverished elderly households in each of the 13 locations. Households were selected by consultation with chiefs and village elders. With sufficient rain, there was a good harvest in June & July providing 2-3 90kg bags of sorghum to be the main source of household food for much of the year. As in previous years, FOTO provided useful items to the community. In December 2025, 3,000 monthly 2026 pocket calendars & pens were given to teachers, chiefs, village elders, government officials, and thousands of citizens. In December 2025, IWHA paid for FOTO to purchase and distribute 8,000 16x23 FOTO 2026 wall calendars, three pages each with 4 months. The main photo on the first page, January-April, is of the FOTO staff with new shirts in front of the FOTO office. The second main photo shows women recipients of 2 kg bags of certified Serado seed. The third page main photo is of Mary Otieno, VAF, Rangul Location, teaching hand washing at Kanyalwal Primary School. The top of each page has FOTOs and IWHAs logos and the statement The Goal is Zero (waterborne disease). The bottom of each page has the Kenya 2010 constitution statement that Every person has the right to clean and safe water in adequate quantities. In 2025, 21 USA IWHA donors sponsored 53 secondary school girls in forms 2-4, paying all school fees and supplies. As Kenya increased primary school from 8 to 9 years in 2025, there was no Form 1 class in secondary school in 2025. A unique aspect of this girl sponsorship is that Dinah Chienjo arranges special activities for the girls during term breaks in April and August and during the long November-December break at the end of the academic year. During the term breaks, the emphasis was on reviewing subjects covered in the previous term. Dinah hired two excellent teachers from Paw Tenge Secondary School to conduct the review of subjects, mainly math, biology, and chemistry. The girls, teachers, and FOTO staff have Kenya tea and mandazies as a mid-morning snack and a good lunch. The girls also have time with computers for internet use. In November, master tailor Esther worked with the Form 2 and 3 students to make their school uniform for 2026. These students learned tailoring skills after completing Form 1 and they refreshed their skills to make a new school uniform for 2026. 24 IWHA sponsored Form Four girls graduated from secondary school in November. 2025. They enjoyed two days at the FOTO office in December celebrating, evaluating their experiences, receiving new shoes, pens, monthly planners, sanitary pads and ibuprofen tablets, and the last monthly 1,000 Kenya Schillings for the girls and their guardians. IWHA also supports Faustine Odaba, Mama Solar, in Nairobi, to promote water testing with the PML, solar water pasteurization and solar cooking using a Cookit. Faustine is the worlds leading solar cook, first introducing the Cookit to refugees in the Kakuma Refugee camp in 1995 and being the main trainer for Solar Cookers Internationals East Africa office through 2009 when SCI closed its Kenya office. Faustine also assisted Bob Metcalf on water testing workshops and set up solar cooking demonstrations all over Kenya from 2002-2013. In January 2025, IWHA made an 87 second YouTube video as one requirement for an Open Call grant offered by Action for Womens Health that IWHA applied for. IWHA requested funding for FOTO to increase water testing in Kenya and to greatly expand solar cooking with the Cookit in Lower Nyakach. FOTOs strategy to eliminate waterborne disease could be replicated worldwide by the 2 billion people without safe drinking water. FOTOs expertise in solar cooking could be replicated by hundreds of millions of women in low-income countries who have sunshine for many months but only know fire cooking. Heres the link. https://youtu.be/27AK3tzhKTIThe first evaluation of Action for Womens Health proposals was a peer review process, where each applicant was given scores in four categories by four other applicants. Two reviewers gave IWHAs application 4s and 5s, but two reviewers gave 2s and made comments unrelated to solar cooking and eliminating waterborne disease. In November, Action for Womens Health announced that 83 grants were given to worthy organizations. However, not one award addressed waterborne disease or an alternative to fire cooking for women. FOTOs unique and transforming expertise remain invisible. World Water Week in Stockholm is the largest annual water conference put on every August by the Stockholm International Research Institute (SIWI). Sessions are in person and virtual, with sessions live and recorded. Bob attended WWW in 2010 and 2011, demonstrating the PML at the UN-Habitat booth and giving PMLs and flash drives with teaching materials to several dozen international delegates each year. Since 2015, a main topic of WWW has been the UNs Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 6.1: By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all.Bob watched a dozen presentations of World Water Week 2025. Many presenters mentioned that 2.2 billion people do not have safe drinking water but then the speakers moved on, not being horrified at the millions of cases of severe diarrhea and thousands of deaths that result daily. Many speakers acknowledged that SDG6.1 would not be achieved, but there is no Plan B. At the closing session of WWW, it was announced that the theme of WWW 2026 will be Water for People and Progress. IWHA realized that this was an opportunity to educate SIWI and the international water community about water testing with the Portable Microbiology Laboratory, solar water pasteurization and the WAPI, and FOTOs replicable strategy to eliminate waterborne disease by nominating Bob for the 2026 Stockholm Water Prize. Bob qualified with his research developing the PML, establishing solar water pasteurization guidelines and in developing guidelines for the water pasteurization indicator (WAPI). Bob qualified under Policy and Practices by advancing the human right to safe drinking water in the FOTO project since 2012. Bob contacted microbiology, solar and other friends requesting they submit nominations before the September 18, 2025, deadline. IWHA is delighted that several dozen nominations for Bob were submitted, including from Faustine, Dinah, teachers, health workers, government officials in Lower Nyakach as well as from FOTO staff. Although it is a l
    Geographies
    Not indicated
    Dates
    Jan 1, 2025 – Dec 31, 2025
    Source
    990
    No causes provided
    No populations provided
    –
    $122.2K