Imagine what it takes to wake up in the morning, look for a pot, place it on your head and walk out the door before the sun has risen. This is a daily reality for hundreds of women in Gwassi, Homa Bay County. This early morning walk to fetch water in jerrycans and pots is centered on the single sentence, “we don’t have a water problem – there is plenty of water in the lake.”
Thus, women wake up and trek with their grimy pots and pans, dirty dishes, cutlery, filthy laundry, and unwashed bodies – to the lake. And when they get there a few hours later, they wash clothes including soiled nappies, clean their cutlery, defecate, wash their bodies, collect water - from the same place - and then walk uphill for the 4, or 5, or 6 kilometer hike back to their homes.
Disease abounded. Exhaustion. Stress. Because why?
The woman gets home and it’s time to clean the house and cook meals with this small amount of water – honestly how much water can one human carry, or how much water can a donkey carry? And because water is scarce, women could not use it for anything other than cooking.
Enter Rotary Club of Karura. In 2024/5, under the Presidency of Alice Karenge, Rotary Club of Karura provided 70 tanks to the Sokoni Womens Group. The capacity of each tank was 10,000 litres, and the grant included a cement tank foundation plus guttering.
In February of 2026, members of Rotary Club of Karura, led by President Sheridan Muruka conducted a monitoring and evaluation trip to Gwassi where we met Baby Tangi. Now this is one interesting story – when Mama Baby Tangi received her water tank in December of 2024, she danced!
She did a jig right there and sung, “chiki chiki chiki - now I can get another baby because I don’t have to wake up so early to fetch water…”
She did a jig right there and sung, “chiki chiki chiki - now I can get another baby because I don’t have to wake up so early to fetch water…”
When RC Karura delivered the second phase of tanks, we found her “heavy”. When we returned for the monitoring and evaluation – we were greeted by a smiling Mama Baby Tangi holding a beautiful baby boy, who was born in August 2025.
It was not just this home where we were received with joy, singing and laughter – it was in all the homes that we visited in an area that covered 100 sq kilometres. At each stop, we received impactful stories. A woman caring for a disabled mother. A young mother with special needs child. A wife caring for her spouse, bedridden for three years.
The government health inspector stated a 98% fall in disease - particularly with cholera, dysentery, typhoid and genital schistosomiasis. Plus, the whooper - girls are now finishing their homework, are completing primary school and going on to high school. Prior to this project, girls would often be violated as they walk to the lake in the evenings to fetch water, according to the health inspector. These resulted in emotional trauma, fear, stress, early pregnancy and marriage.
The trip confirmed that providing 70 water tanks to the Sokoni Womens Group has united the RC Karura team, has impacted and changed lives for good in Gwassi.