Water for the Weary in Kenya!

Partners for Care is an Alpharetta-based nonprofit focused on community health initiatives in Kenya.  PFC was founded in 2008 by Alpharetta resident Connie Cheren, a registered nurse and social worker and David Gruber, an Atlanta area businessman. The organization is comprised of 28 Kenyans on the ground who deliver medical, education, outreach and sports programs to the most marginalized in the slums and remote regions of Kenya.

Partners for Care is pleased to celebrate its successful partnership with Greif Corporation and PackH20 to distribute innovative, water backpacks to people all over Kenya. 

Every 20 seconds a child dies because of a waterborne illness.  Women in places without running water walk an average of 3.5 miles a day carrying up to 40 pounds of water in contaminated jerry cans for their families.  Partners for Care has partnered with Greif Corporation and PackH20 to replace jerry cans with clean, lightweight, water backpacks in Kenya. The water pack, which was designed to ease the burden of water transport and storage and help reduce waterborne illnesses, has been hailed by Popular Science as a 2013 Best of What’s New award winner. 

To date, the Partners for Care staff have hand delivered nearly 10,000 water packs to residents in Kenya, from the remote tribal regions of Marsabit, 300 miles north of Nairobi, to Mai Mahiu in the Rift Valley region of central Kenya, to residents of an island community off the coast of Mombasa in the southern part of Kenya.  With every delivery, PFC staff conduct an initial assessment to determine if those receiving the packs are currently suffering from any symptoms of waterborne illnesses. PFC staff also train users on proper methods for using and cleaning the water packs for optimum results. Follow up metrics are also collected 90 days after delivery of the packs to determine how successful the packs have been in easing relieving back and spinal problems, reducing symptoms of waterborne illnesses, and providing people with a safe, economical alternative to the traditional methods of water transport and storage.

Reception by Kenyans to the PackH20 water backpack has been overwhelmingly positive everywhere the Partners for Care team has delivered them.  In one community, a man learned about the water packs and walked six hours to the PFC medical clinic in Marurui slum outside Nairobi, to see how he could get a pack. When the man arrived at the clinic, he told the staff he had spent a lot of money on typhoid and diarrhea treatment.  He said “I want to be free from this kind of sickness and save the money I’ve been using for medication to educate my children instead.”

Partners for Care thinks this is a very good benefit to the water backpacks—redirecting monies spent on treating waterborne illnesses to helping kids stay healthy and go to school.

For more on the work of Partners for Care, visit www.partnersforcare.org