Donate to WILK's Year-End Campaign for Wheels, Water, and Widows!
By year-end, we're raising $350,000 to replace our vehicle, fund three wells, and support 50 widows in 2027!
Will you help us put "Wheels Up" for Kenya?
Why We Need WHEELS
Maybe you’ve noticed the cream-colored Toyota Land Cruiser in many photos in our newsletters.
It’s in the background when you see water pouring out of a new borehole.
Covered in flipchart papers when we do Livestock as a Business farmer training, it’s like a whiteboard in our mobile classroom.
It crawls like a tank across the rough terrain of rural Kenya—over boulders, on the edges of ditches, and up steep riverbanks. It takes us wherever people are.
And right now, our trusty 4-wheel drive Land Cruiser is getting tired! The wear and tear of 130,000 bumpy miles is undeniable.
We need to replace this vehicle so our team can stay safe and get where we need to go—especially the remote, rural communities we serve.
That is why the first item on our end of year wish list is “WHEELS,” as in “a new set of.”
To visit the far, dry corners of Kenya and respond to the call of those who still need clean water, a dependable vehicle is the only way.
It’s time to go shopping! Right now, Land Cruisers are in high demand. We already have people searching on our behalf. We estimate the cost of a reliable used Land Cruiser to be $60,000.
WILK Co-Founder, Joseph Larasha, presents at a Livestock as a Business meeting in September, 2026.
Why We Need WATER
While our vehicle helps us reach new places, so does social media. Recently, we’ve seen that good news travels fast.
Since many Kenyans are on social media, especially Facebook, they’ve heard about the new boreholes we drilled in Orarait and Ololepo. Soon after these posts went live, we received urgent pleas for clean water from 10 new communities.
That’s why the second item on our wish list is “WATER.”
In 2027, WILK’s 20th anniversary year, we hope to drill three new wells.
We need your help to bring clean water and new life to people in the farthest, driest corners of southern Kenya.
People are pleading to be next. They want the transformation in health, time savings, livestock body condition, and consistent school attendance that clean, accessible water brings.
Over the years, you’ve helped us bring clean water to nearly 40 communities, reaching 115,000 people and their livestock each day. The impact of clean water—and your donations—is life-changing for these families.
Will you help us help more people?
A young man fills a jerry can at the Ololepo Borehole Test Pumping in August, 2026.
Why We Need HOPE FOR WIDOWS
So that’s WHEELS, WATER, and… WIDOWS!
Twice weekly, our Hope for Widows Field Assistants visit each participant in the program. Once a month, our Field Officer Cate Olegei meets with each of the four widow clusters in Osoit, Eselengei, Risa, and Meshenani.
Group 5’s businesses are now 3 months old. When we met this newest group of widows, their average monthly income was $15. After using the $150 business grants, they are now averaging $35 in NET PROFIT per month.
Other women are lining up to enter this program. They also want the “pure blessing,” as Yiapoyo described it, of a business grant and three breeding goats.
We hope to expand this urgently needed program to 50 women in 2027.
One young widow (21 years old) surged forward out of last place to become 27th out of 83 total widows currently in the program!
When we first met her, she was lost and confused. She had two small children and another on the way. The haunted look on her face made us worry that sexual assault was a factor. Poverty made her vulnerable and she had no one to protect her.
We intervened by visiting her, then sending the chief to speak with her and her family members. Now, her life has stabilized. She has money in her pocket and the satisfaction of knowing that she pulled herself out of a dark place.
This is why Hope for Widows is so important. Not only do women gain confidence with success—they also gain wisdom and support from other widows.
We know many more young, lost, and hopeless widows are out there. Hope for Widows shines a light in the darkness. Together, we can shine it far and wide!
Sempeyo, a Group 5 widow from Eselengei, after buying stock.
How You Can Help
Please considering making your most generous gift to keep these important programs running. Our ambitious year-end fundraising target is $350,000.
Remarkably, a WILK donor has pledged to match the first $100,000 donated to this campaign! You can unlock this match by giving today.
Your gift of any amount will support either:
- WHEELS: $60,000 helps us purchase a safe vehicle. This will keep the wheels rolling and the good work flowing to the people who need it most!
- WATER: $200,000 brings three deep borehole wells to rural areas where recurring droughts have dried up local water points.
- WIDOWS: $90,000 ensures that 50 more women have access to Hope for Widows’ life-transforming training and business capital.
Ways to Donate
You make a tax-deductible donation to Water is Life Kenya in the following ways:
- Click "Donate" on this web page to give via Credit Card, PayPal, Venmo, ACH Transfer, or Google Pay.
- To have your employer match
- Support us through your Minimum Required Distribution (Tax ID: 26-3185829).
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Send us a check at this mailing address:
Water is Life Kenya
314 E. Main St.
Kelway Plaza, Suite 2
Newark, DE 19711