Operation Clean City-Message from Vitalice 6-2-08

Hello Phill

I hope you are doing well. I printed out the sketch plan of the IV-Hopewell from your blog site and now the whole picture is crystal clear in our mind. The local project team is as good as made up and has Alice and James, both former Hopewellians and myself. James is already setting an appointment for the project team to discus land acquisition with two potential land owners. They own parcels of land next to the hill behind Hopewell and those two parcels provide a spectacular view of the entire city with Lake Nakuru and its Flamingoes providing the extra scenic beauty. Alice is out gathering info on the basic essentials of a guest house right from the kitchen equipment, guest rooms and conference facilities. Vitalis has a session with an architect tomorrow afternoon to share this drawing and get the insight into legislation pertaining to the building of such a structure in Kenya. The project team gets together again this Thursday to compare notes and possibly come up with an approximate project budget.

That’s what we have been up to. I am also attaching a write-up of the Clean City project fro your perusal. An additional project proposal that may be combined to meet the water needs of the IV-Hopewell(combined water harvesting and possible borehole)…..this is the one Steve is spearheading and can be made to comfortably fit the two sites.

We would wish to know roughly the approximate land acreage you have in mind and if you already have an approximate working figure in mind.

Be blessed.

Vitalice

Clean City Attachment

Nakuru Town Clean-Up Project: Reclaiming the lost glory of the once ‘Cleanest Town in East Africa”.
Project Summary

Sustainable Development Forum (SDeF-K) was created to help achieve locally, the Millennium Development Goals. This clean-up project incorporates two of the Millennium goals, partnership development and environmental conservation, and follow just a month after SDeF-K launched a successful Sanitary Towel Project that will help keep 1200 needy girls in 25 schools for the next one year without any break occasioned by their biological clock. The project is proposed for July 2008 and five thousand participants(residents, students from schools and colleges, business community and humanitarian service organizations in Nakuru including Rotary Club of Nakuru and Lions Club).SDeF-K is requesting Safaricom Foundation to kindly support this project through a donation of Kshs.500, 000/= and Safaricom T-shirts for the participants. SDeF-K strongly believes that this project will generate a huge national impact whose outcomes will be demonstrated in other towns across the country.

Funding. Where from?

SDeF-K is seeking approximately Kshs. 1,000,000(US$17,000) in funding from various development agencies which have a commitment to community service. We are looking for partners who will not only consider their support for this project as an additional feather in their CSR,but those that will in addition enjoy in this the project’s guaranteed high benefit impacts that is sure to be replicated in other towns and cities across Kenya.

The Problem

Mounds of solid wastes continue being an eyesore in the 21 residential estates of Nakuru town as well as the town centre itself. Papers, plastics, broken bottles and other forms of solid wastes provide breeding ground for disease vectors as well as being unsightly! In spite of there being in place legislation against open dumping and littering, both the residents and Municipal authority have either by omission or commission contributed to this massive pollution in the once acclaimed “Cleanest Town in East Africa”.

The town’s 21 residential estates with a combined night population of one million and day population of 700,000 residents absolutely overwhelm the Municipal’s Environmental and Sanitation department which is responsible for ensuring garbage disposal as well as spearheading environmental education. The said department, charged with the critical function of environmental hygiene and sanitation, is manned by a thin staff of 30 persons. The department depends on a fleet of 2 refuse collection trucks to manage the over 50,000 tones of waste generated weekly by the town.

Compounding the environmental pollution in this 4th largest city in Kenya is the lack of an efficient garbage disposal system and uncoordinated town clean-up efforts. Nakuru lacks a landfill and an incinerator and all solid wastes end at the Gyoto Open Dumpsite. This ‘cheap’ option is already a health and security hazard to the residents of London Estate, one of the biggest estates in Nakuru in which the dumpsite is located. Several community-based groups occasionally engage in clean-up exercises but their efforts have failed to show and leave a lasting solution to this problem.

SDeF’s Proposed Solution
SDeF proposes a 3-pronged approach to reclaiming Nakuru’s lost glory as the cleanest city in the region as follows:
· Launch an intensive 2-day clean-up exercise of Nakuru town which will serve to generate awareness to residents and stakeholders. The City Mayor, high profile personalities and other participating officers from the Environment Ministry and Ministry of Public Health & Sanitation, possibly the Minister for Environment, will use the launch to give this project the impetus and momentum to move forward.
· The same clean-up activity will be the launch pad for a comprehensive environmental education program to be conducted in schools, institutions, residential estates and the market places. Increased education in personal and environmental hygiene will help sustain a cleaner city.
· Stakeholders brought together in this clean-up exercise will be roped in to help enhance the capacity of the Municipal Council of Nakuru in the collection and proper disposal of garbage. This is a long-term effort which will lead to a well-equipped and informed department at the council and better waste management practices.

SDeF’s Capabilities
Though a young non-governmental organization, SDeF-K has over the last one year established itself as a result-oriented and community-needs’ sensitive group. Its activities are directed by a team of four persons who double up as Rotarians and have internalized the Rotary motto of ‘service above self’ in their various businesses and vocations.
SDeF mobilized financial resources last March and in collaboration with development conscious friends and partners in Wisconsin, USA, the Rotary Club of Walworth-Fontana in the USA and Nakuru Rotary initiated a successful Sanitary Towel Project which supplied sanitary products and garments to 1250 needy girls spread across 22 schools and centres in four school districts around Nakuru.
SDeF was also the lead agency that established Early Childhood Education (ECD) centres/nursery schools in the camps for the Internally Displaced Persons at Afraha and ASK Showground after the post-election violence that hit Kenya early this year. SDeF established a Management Board that now oversees the teaching, learning and protection needs of the 700 children in the two ECD schools in the internal refugee camps. The board, chaired by SDeF’s Vitalice, has representatives of all the agencies dealing with children issues and includes UNICEF, Save the Children Fund-UK, BetterWorld-Canada, Rotary International, Child Welfare Society of Kenya; ASK Nakuru Branch and the Red Cross.
SDeF-K mobilized an initial Kshs.100, 000/= from wishers (Doshi Group of Companies locally and the Hanford Rotary Club in California, USA) to initiate a feeding (lunch program) for the children. The said funds have procured foodstuffs to last the children one month.
The project team is a mix of two educational administrators who will easily work on mobilizing both primary and high school students as well as university students and staff in the clean-up exercise; an incoming Rotary Club president whose efforts will bring in participation of the Nakuru business community and a veteran chemist/environmentalist, now serving as the technical director of a mineral water bottling company in Nakuru, whose public relations’ efforts brought four ambassadors, Kenya’s director of medical services and chair of the Kenya Human Rights Foundation to visit Nakuru as guest speakers at the Rotary functions. His talent will be utilized to publicize this project as credible and urgent.

Project Budget

The project budget includes:
Cleaning materials
Administrative costs
Environmental education

Direct Costs (Cleaning Materials):
1. Wheelbarrow
2. Rakes
3. Brooms(Long-handled)
4. Slashers
5. Gloves
6. Mouth/nose guards
7. Hoes(Jembes)
8. Dustbin liners/refuse bags
9. Bibs/T-shirts

Administrative Costs:
Include costs incurred in publicizing the clean up exercise (posters, flyers), costs of coordinating various project activities, transport costs during implementation (delivery of cleaning items & supervisory), telephone services, sending out invitations, arranging for podium/tent for official function. This will constitute 10% of direct costs..

Environmental Education:
Includes costs of enhancing the capacity of group leaders in environmental education (training of leaders’ of school environmental clubs, leaders of out-of institutions groups) and general community education through drama/theatre as well as film shows on personal and environmental hygiene.