Knowng that Blue Planet Run normally works with implementers to expand their capacity and avoids "one-off" projects, we would like to propose this one due to its great need and will await for the group of peers to decide.

Itiati Village is located 150 kilometers north of Nairobi at the foothills of Mt. Kenya. It consists of 1698 households, 5 nursery schools, 6 primary schools, one secondary school, one trade school, 3 cattle dips, 2 coffee factories, one dispensary and 4 tea processing centers. The combined student population is 3100 children. There are no motor vehicles and the people travel by bicycle or foot 7 kilometers down a heavily rutted road to the town of Karatina. Each family is heavily dependent on livestock and subsistence farming.

Two rivers, Ragati and Muthira, enclose the area. the Ragati is 7 kilometers distant and was the primary source of water for the community. Population growth has resulted in over-exploitation at the upper levels of the river near the intake for Itiati's water distribution system. Water used by other communities for farming, irrigation, and tapping of piped water has made the source undependable.

The Muthira River is about 5 kilometers from the village. It has become seasonal due to deforestation and other factors that have reduced rainfall. Women and children carry water from the river, when available. Children in school and families at home are often without water to drink and resort to purchasing water from vendors whose sources are questionable. Water borne diseases are common. Livestock have a difficult time, gardens depend solely on the limited rainfall. Pregnant women must negotiate the 7 kilometers to town on bike or wheelbarrow to deliver their baby because there is no water available at the dispensary. The two coffee factories are closed due to lack of water, and unemployment is a serious issue.

An underground water source has been identified on a hill overlooking the village. The water source was discovered in 1949, but sealed by authorities when the water distribution system utilizing the river was developed. The project consists of drilling a bore-hole, installing a pump, building one large and four small storage tanks and some minor repairs of leaks in pipes and storage tanks of the existing distribution system. Water could then be routed to households, schools the dispensary and coffee factories.The community has formed a water management committee to carry out the work, supervise progress, train maintenance personnel and educate the community to use of water in ways that reduce water borne diseases. A water usage fee will be charged to fund maintenance efforts.

One

th Itiati Sub-Location Self-Help Group is an active organization that has built a dispensary, church and is continually educating people on ways to avoid AIDS, malaria and other diseases. The Group will work with the contractor by providing manual labor, and personnel for maintennce training. They har holding meetings to educate he community in ways to conserve reduce water and reduce borne diseases.

The Self-Help Group has plans for planting desirable trees, applying for micro credit-loans for women, developing agriculture projects to reduce unemployment and improving schools with the help of Global Run.

The project has the support of the District' representative to Parliament. He is committed to providing clean water throughout this District and this will be one of "his" first accomplishments. He accompanied us when we toured the Village to evaluate the worthiness of the project and the entire tour was video taped and appeared on television. The involvement of Blue Planet Run would be prominent in any future publicity efforts. Schools raising funds through their involvement in the Global Run will be adopting two or more of the village schools. Publicity would be generated at all of the schools participating in this year's Global Run (25 schools in 14 countries). And, most important, women and children will no longer have to trek long distances to carry water, jobs would be created through micro credit and agriculture, crops could be grown throughout the year and water borne diseases would be greatly reduced.

The lead is Don Howard. He and his wife will be going to Kenya in April and August to visit the projects and document results through video interviews, pictures and reports. Local Rotary Clubs will be responsible for disbursing funds, monitoring results, maintaining records and solving problems.