The Safe Water Enterprises (SWE) of Siemens Stiftung and SkyJuice Foundation provide safe drinking water to people in remote areas in East Africa. They are implemented together with local partners and selected community groups, who run the kiosks as social enterprises within their communities. Ownership of the kiosk is transferred to them when the social enterprise has reached social and financial sustainability.
Two Safe Water Enterprises in Korumba and Soko Kogweno in Kisumu, near Victoria Lake in Kenya have reached this stage and were officially handed over to the communities with festive ceremony on Wednesday 19th October. The Governor of Kisumu County himself, James Ranguma, joined the celebrations to honour the handing over of these successful community projects.
The two SWEs were established in cooperation with SOS Children’s Villages in 2014 and have succeeded in building a successful social enterprise over the past two years. Today, they are providing safe drinking water to an average of 2.000 people each, employ two full time kiosk operators and two assistants, and even generate a small profit that they can reinvest into the expansion of the project or further social activities in the community.
In order to reach this stage, the Korumba and Soko Kogweno community have gone through extensive training and capacity building initiatives. Siemens Stiftung provided training to the kiosk operators with regards to operations and maintenance of the kiosk, but also with regards to business management, financial planning and social marketing. Together with the Kenya Water for Health Organisation, Siemens Stiftung also did widespread awareness raising on water, hygiene and health in the surrounding communities and schools.
The aim of the Safe Water Enterprises is to provide a sustainable solution for access to safe drinking water in remote regions in developing countries. At the same time, they enable kiosk operators and further community members with opportunities to generate an income. By the time the SWEs are handed over to the SWE management teams, they are in a position to take full ownership and to run the kiosks sustainably for the benefit of the entire community.