Native Kenyan working to bring clean water to his village

The sources here are bountiful.

All you have to do is turn on your tap or head down to the store for any number of bottled options.

But thousands of miles away in Kenya, the search for any source of fresh drinking water is much more difficult.

Spearheaded by a local Kenyan, Village Church of Barrington is working hard to make sure the search for water isn't so backbreaking in the eastern African nation. The church is raising money to build fresh wells in the village.

Without clean sources, residents have taken to drinking polluted water from the village's river, said Larry Barnett.

"People are just getting sick all the time," Barnett said.

The church's drive to build the wells started after one of its own, Otieno Ochieng, lost an older brother to typhoid fever two years ago back in Ka Wanyande, his tiny home village in eastern Kenya. Ochieng's brother contracted the illness from drinking tainted water.

Ochieng "has been very passionate to get fresh water in that village," Barnett said of why the church got involved in the fundraising.

"When I went home (to Kenya), I saw how bad the water supply was," Ochieng said. "The water they are drinking is very polluted."

The population of Ka Wanyande and neighboring villages in the Usonga region is about 12,000, and all are now facing a dire search for clean water.

A rural community of just about 50 people, Ka Wanyande has no electricity or running water. Ochieng said the village is made up entirely of his family members.

"Everyone takes care of everyone," he said.

Homes in the village, which have only two or three rooms at the most, have mud walls and thatched roofs.

Few people are educated, and there are no jobs in the village for people to earn a living.

While growing up, Ochieng said his family lived off food grown in their own yard.

"I came from a village where we didn't have anything," Ochieng said. "We ate what we grew."

In 1972, with one of his brothers already studying in the United States, Ochieng got the opportunity to come to the U.S. to attend college.

While he had every intention of heading back to Kenya after finishing school at the University of St. Francis in Fort Wayne, Ind., Ochieng said in 1977 he met his wife, Kim, an American.

The two decided to stay in the United States and raise a family here. Now, with two children, Ochieng lives in Hoffman Estates and works for the Vista Hospice.

But in the 35 years since Ochieng left Kenya, the conditions in Ka Wanyande have deteriorated.

"The living standards were higher than what it is now," Ochieng said.

In the past, the area's residents relied on a local river for its water supply.

Now, after years of mining the river's sand, the water has become polluted and the local villages have been ravaged by waterborne diseases.

Ochieng said the sand acted as a purifier for the water. Now with the sand gone, the water has become contaminated.

In the search of fresh water, the villagers have been forced to walk more than six miles to the only well in the area. Typically, it's young girls who make the trip.

"They walk many, many miles to the well," Ochieng said.

According to UNICEF, in 2004 only 46 percent of people living in rural areas of Kenya, where the average life expectancy is just 55, had access to safe drinking water.

At the two local health clinics serving the Usonga region, Ochieng said at least 40 people are treated daily for waterborne illnesses like typhoid fever, cholera and dysentery.

Kim Ochieng said the symptoms -- fever and diarrhea -- are such that many times residents don't even know they are really that sick.

"They don't realize they have something serious," she said.

With the situation becoming more and more dire, Ochieng said he began working with members of the Village Church of Barrington about five months ago to try and raise money for the wells.

So far, the church has already raised enough money -- $30,000 -- to build one well, which will happen in November.

Ochieng said when he was there this summer, he helped to finalize the plans for the well, which will be dug by a local contractor.

"Things are progressing very, very well now," Ochieng said.

Having a source of fresh water close by will make a huge impact on his home village, Ochieng said.

"This will make them able to live much longer," he said. "It makes me feel good that we can change people's lives."

With enough money raised for one well, Ochieng and Barnett are now working with local rotary clubs to fund four more.

The support Ochieng said he has received from the Barrington community and the local Rotary Clubs has been overwhelming.

"It has been awesome," Ochieng said. "A lot of people have put a lot of hours into this."

Those interested in donating to the cause can contact Village Church of Barrington at (847) 381-5221.