What we do

TKMP undertakes activities within the themes of:

• Water, Sanitation and Hygiene - the Siaya WASH Project
• Environmental Education and Advocacy
• Cultural and Technical Exchange
• Youth Engagement

Siaya WASH and Safewater Projects

Safe water, effective sanitation and good hygiene are the three pillars of a healthy community, and TKMP is working with the villages of Obambo Kadenge, Ochillo and Ohayo to increase people's access to these basic needs.

TKMP works with local people and village committees to identify the steps required to implement long term, sustainable solutions to the problems of water borne disease. Three water purification plants have been established using Skyjuice-Skyhydrant (c) micro-filtration technology, and a dam has been reconstructed.

As well as providing ongoing support for operation and maintenance of water treatment systems, TKMP staff work to increase the capacity of local people to understand their water needs and work more effectively with the government to gain better services.

Over the period 2012-2015, TKMP will increase its focus on sanitation. Without full community use of toilets, provision of a safe water supply will not significantly reduce the disease burden within a community.

TKMP aims to begin construction of improved toilet facilities within local schools in May 2013, and will use this work as a catalyst to increase toilet construction within individual households.

Environmental Education and Advocacy

A primary task in increasing the target communities access to reliable and safe drinking water and other sanitation services is empowering the community to negotiate with the government to provide services, and wherever possible, become self sufficient in service provision. The program works at a grass roots level to provide training in hygiene and sanitation, and is an advocate for the needs of poor families.

Cultural and Technical Exchange

Tweed is a highly skilled and well resourced community, from the technical aspects of urban water services, to the organisation of sporting competitions and implementation of community based environmental conservation projects. There is a strong desire and track record within the program to encourage regular visits of individuals working within the Kenyan arm of the project to Tweed.

Experience shows that mentoring relationships form where ever and whenever our Kenyan partners meet local activists, and it is these multiple contacts that create the programs depth of commitment. Likewise, visits from Australian project volunteers to Kenya are an invaluable source of information, and inspiration, for those involved but who have never experienced the highs and lows of life in Africa.

Youth Engagement

Youth is the future, and nowhere is this more apparent than in Kenya, where a very young demographic reflects the ravages of HIV-AIDS on the adult population.

The youth community is beset by a chronic lack of opportunity for paid employment, so projects utilising their inherent capacity for optimism and innovation are being brought to bear on environmental management.

TKMP staff work within local schools to organise sporting activities and establish native tree nurseries, and through this mobilisation increase awareness of health, sanitation and catchment management issues.