Orra: our newest project in Kenya
The first project funded by the Just Around the Corner Art Auction was meant to be at a remote site called Nyiroyia. However, tribal unrest in the area at the end of 2011 forced Milgis Trust and the Voss Foundation to reevaluate the security and effectiveness of building a water system at that place and [...]
Paynesville Project: Final Report
Our 2011 Women Helping Women water project in Liberia is complete! Thanks to all of your efforts, we have been able to work with FACE Africa to build a life-altering water system at the Hope Mission School in the Bernard Farm Community of Paynesville, Liberia. The water system is comprised of a hand-dug well with [...]
Nyiroyia! (and other news from Kenya)
Now that the glorious rains have ended (more about that later), work is finally able to get started in Nyiroyia, the site of our newest water project in Kenya with our partners Milgis Trust. Nyiroyia is located in the Marsabit district, an extremely arid area east of the Ndoto Mountains, near the Samburu region of [...]
Georges Malaika School Project: Update
Look at the great photos our DR Congo partner, the Georges Malaika Foundation, sent us of the girls from the Georges Malaika School, drinking fresh, clean water at lunch! We are so proud to have brought access to clean water to this school and the surrounding community! Visit our DRC Projects page for photos, updates, [...]
Liberia Project: Update
We are pleased to report much progress has already been made at our newest well site at the Hope Mission School in Paynesville, Liberia. Representatives from FACE Africa recently visited the site and witnessed the tremendous work going in to digging the well at the site of the school. Click here to check out the [...]
Groundbreaking at the Hope Mission School Well Site
We are proud to announce that on September 2, 2011 ground was broken at our first project site in Liberia. Located in the Bernard Farming Community of Paynesville, Liberia, The Hope Mission School will soon be equipped with two institutional latrines and hand washing stations as well as a drilled well located seconds from the [...]
Samburu Accounting 101
Sustainability and community empowerment are of utmost importance to the Voss Foundation; every single one of our projects aims to make sure our beneficiaries can take ownership of and maintain their own wells and water systems after implementation is complete. One way we achieve this is by encouraging villages to enact a very small water [...]
Swari Project: Update and Lesson Learned!
Our president and founder, Knut Brundtland, and our European Representative, Cecilie Malm Brundtland, just came back from a trip to visit our Kenya projects! As soon as they arrived in the Samburu region, they were met by two eldermen who came to say hello and thank Voss Foundation for our work — the first time [...]
D.R. Congo: New Project!
We are happy to announce that our second project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo will be a hand-pump well for the entire Kalebuka community! The well will ensure fresh clean water for all the villagers, the majority of whom depend on water-demanding activities, such as subsistence farming and cattle herding. The Kalebuka community, [...]
Samburuland, Kenya: Drought Report
As The New York Times reported earlier this month, the Horn of Africa is currently suffering from “the worst drought in 60 years.” Fortunately, our friend Helen from Milgis Trust has assured us that all three of the Voss Foundation wells in Kenya are working perfectly despite the severe water shortage. Unfortunately, many people from northeastern [...]
Ndonyo Nasipa Project: Final Report
It’s been less than a year since the completion of our second Women Helping Women project, but access to clean water has already had an incredible impact on the Ndonyo Nasipa community. The community’s women and girls, who were burdened daily with the task of carrying water, have especially benefited from the new well. The [...]
D.R. Congo Project: Final Report
Last year, the Voss Foundation’s Women Helping Women funded a well at the site of the future Georges Malaika School for Girls in the village of Kalebuka, located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Now, the school opening is just weeks away! Thanks to Voss Foundation and its Women Helping Women donors, there is [...]
Democratic Republic of the Congo: Update
We are getting ready to start another project with the Georges Malaika Foundation in the village of Kalebuka, in the Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo! In the photo above, taken this week in Kalebuka, representatives from GMF and Solutions for Africa research the location for the well. This will be our [...]
Swari Project: Update
It’s been over a year since the opening of the water system in Swari, and we have some great news on our continuing success from our friends and partners at Milgis Trust: Currently in construction in Swari is a new health clinic funded by the government. This clinic would not have gone ahead without the [...]
Latakwen Project: Update
More than two years after implementation, the Latakwen project is going strong! We have just got some great new updates and have learned that the village continues to grow significantly. For more information, please check out the full report from our partners, Milgis Trust. Thank you so much for your support on our project in [...]
VIDEO: Samburu woman thanks Voss Foundation
A Samburu woman thanks our Women Helping Women delegation at the opening of our most recent Ndonyo Nasipa well in Kenya. In the Samburu language, “thank you” is “ashauling” and “water” is “ngare” — if you listen closely, can you hear her say those words?
VIDEO: Walk to the Well: Women Helping Women – Ndonyo Nasipa opening trip
A delegation of Samburu women lead some of our Women Helping Women donors to the water opening ceremony at Ndonyo Nasipa:
The technology of a rope and washer pump
We’ve received some great questions from supporters asking what it means that some of our wells have “rope and washer” pumps.“Rope and washer” refers to the technology behind a certain kind of hand-pump. Our friends at CHF International, with whom we implemented rope and washer pumps on wells in Ethiopia, have provided us with [...]
Ethiopia Project: Update
See above and below great photos from our partner CHF International showing our wells in the Gode and Kelafo zones in Ethiopia! Here is the completed well at Niri The shallow wells’ construction is based on a design incorporating both hydrological engineering best practices and local preferences. Each well has a one meter high wall [...]
D.R. Congo Project: Update
See above and below great photos from our partner Georges Malaika Foundation showing schoolchildren and Kalebuka villagers enjoying clean drinking water from the Voss Foundation well. The Voss Foundation has partnered with GMF to build a well at the Georges Malaika School for Girls in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The project is funded [...]
Ndonyo Nasipa Project: Update
Our partner Milgis Trust sent some great photos of the implementation and construction of the well that will serve the water system at Ndonyo Nasipa. The Ndonyo Nasipa project is the Voss Foundation’s third water system in the Samburu region of Kenya, with Milgis Trust, and the second Women Helping Women project. For more photos, [...]
2010 Women Helping Women Honoree
We are proud to announce Noëlla Coursaris as the 2010 Women Helping Women Honoree! Noëlla Coursaris was born in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but went to live with relatives in Europe after the death of her father when she was only five years old. After receiving a degree in business management in Switzerland, [...]
Women Helping Women II: Ndonyo Nasipa (European Edition)
We are excited to announce the launch of our second European Women Helping Women program! Women Helping Women is an international grassroots campaign wherein a group of women join forces to change the lives of an African community with access to clean water. The newest Women Helping Women / Kvinner hjelper Kvinner project will be [...]
Georges Malaika School project: Update
Our water project with the Georges Malaika Foundation (GMF) is complete! The Voss Foundation has helped GMF build a well at the first all-girls school in the village of Kalebuka in the Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, providing the school and village with facilitated access to pure, clean drinking water. You [...]
