Over the past few months, something special has been happening in the valley below our farm. Two young men have been working with our team to prepare their homes for the coming rains.
What began as a plan to build water tanks has grown into neighbours learning, digging and building together, creating the beginnings of a movement. I can’t wait to share their story with you.
Vision in Action — working together to build a family’s water tank.
For a long time, we’ve been laying the foundations that make true resilience possible here in the Tsavo Project — practical things like water security, capturing heavy rains with swales to reduce topsoil erosion, storing water in earth-brick tanks, regenerating the land, and planting indigenous trees. These simple systems become powerful when they are understood, owned, and carried forward by a community.
We’ve experienced a real breakthrough since Jackson and I approached Jimbale and Abraham with an idea and invited them to work alongside us — two families learning together and putting into practice the approaches we’ve been developing on the farm. Together, we’re creating a living model that others in the valley can see, understand, and eventually follow.
This has been a global team effort — from designing and building each dome by hand, to shaping the interiors, landscaping the grounds, and refining our construction approach.
A deep gully carved by floodwater leading to homes in the valley. Look closely and you’ll see our domes on the hillside above.
Both Jimbale and Abraham live in the valley, on land where the topsoil has washed away, leaving heavy clay that becomes hard as concrete in the dry months and deep mud when it’s wet. With little fertile soil left, crops regularly fail, making life even more precarious for their families.
During heavy rains, floodwater can surround their homes for days at a time, leaving them trapped inside and unable to reach water, work, or school.
Many families here, women and children walk long distances everyday to fetch water from open pans shared with goats and cows — the only water that has been available to them until now.
Jimbale drives our tuk-tuk, hauling heavy loads and keeping the farm moving.
Jimbale’s mother & extended family live in a simple earth-and-stick home.
Jimabale’s nephews remind us of the hope and joy children bring into the world.
Jimbale’s new home for his wife & child, with the water tank he is helping build.
Wanting to create a home for his wife and child, Jimbale has begun building a small brick house within the family compound, moulding every brick himself from available soil. Most of the roof is covered with old iron sheets, except for one new shiny section he was able to buy with his August wages.
Abraham
Abraham cares for our chickens, goats, and ducks, and like Jimbale, he is the main provider for a large extended family. Recently married with a new baby, he lives with his wife, mother, and younger siblings on a small plot nearer the main road.
Abraham cares for our poultry and goats.
His family, like most families in the Valley, also face the same challenges — depleted soil, floods, and no easy access to clean water at home.
With very little formal training, he has been steadily improving their homestead — gathering materials, shaping bricks, and beginning to build a simple home for his young family. His determination to learn new skills and invest in his future has made him a valued member of our team, and a key part of this pilot.
Generosity that Changed Everything
In May, a UK family visited our project. Rachel, Emily, and Rosie saw the long walks for water and how quickly these valley homes become vulnerable when heavy rains turn the land into flowing floodwater. Moved by what they witnessed, they offered to fund 20,000-litre water tanks with guttering for two households in the valley.
We carefully chose households where we could make the biggest immediate impact — families whose roofs could take guttering, whose land was at high risk of flooding, and who were ready to work alongside us on swales, trees, and small kitchen gardens, creating a model others in the valley could learn from and follow
Jimbale’s family home is in direct path of flood waters.
Launching with Jimbale’s and Abraham’s families made sense. They are part of our team, eager to learn, and committed to working with us to model how land can be transformed when people work together. We sensed that their commitment to learning and cooperation gave this pilot the best chance of growing into something much bigger.
Working Side by Side
What happened next has been one of the most encouraging moments in our work.
Both families threw themselves into the work, bringing every available member to help dig the swales and build at each homestead. As we provided a simple shared lunch each day, neighbours began to join in too. In a valley where families have often had to struggle alone, people found themselves learning together, digging together, and supporting one another.
Two families, neighbours and our team digging four very long swales.
What We Achieved Together
Working shoulder to shoulder, we began terracing the land along the contours, digging 700 metres of swales — two long swales on each plot, to slow floodwater and protect what little topsoil remains. We prepared more than 200 boomerang-shaped planting holes, ready for indigenous trees that will stabilise the soil and help the land recover.
We built two 20,000-litre earth-brick water tanks and fitted guttering on both homes, so the families can finally capture and store precious rainwater close to their doorsteps.
Abraham’s tank nearly ready for its cover and final plastering.
The first swale around Jimbale’s home taking shape.
The seasonal rains still haven’t arrived yet— but for the first time, these families were ready, not vulnerable.
Guttering & pipework ready to channel rainwater into Abraham’s new tank.
What has moved us most is the spirit that has grown through this shared effort. In a place where families often have to compete for scarce resources, people began learning together, digging together, and supporting each other in a new way.
From the valley floor, Jimbale and Abraham and the community can look up and see the domes on the hillside — symbols of what becomes possible when people work together. Neighbours have already begun asking how they can join the next phase.
The Beginning of Something Bigger?
Something meaningful has begun in the valley — neighbours digging side by side, learning together, sharing tools, skills, and meals. A quiet shift from “each family on their own” to a community discovering what becomes possible when they help one another.
With time and our continued support, this approach could grow from two families to fifty, or even a hundred — each one gaining swales, trees, guttering, and a water tank, and each one contributing their labour to their neighbours – strengthening the whole community.
If this story inspires you and you’d like to be part of this growing movement, I’d encourage you to Step Up… Be an Angel – by helping another family begin their transformation.
Or just send an email to Molly@globalangels.org — I’d love to hear from you.
