Kenya's is the economic engine of East-Africa, and its economy is developing strongly. With the help of China, Kenya works hard to improve its road infrastructure. This includes the dirt roads in Kutui West sub-county, which are being tarmacked.

Currently there is a growing demand for drivers. Many young men and women are interested in this opportunity, but acquiring the necessary papers to be a professional driver, first of all a driving license is expensive.

In association with local school Mutonguni Vocational Training Centre Foundation Watu Wangu offers driving courses, to train these men and women for their driving license.

Many elderly people in Kenya live below the poverty line. They often depend for their livelihood on others, such as children and grandchildren, who are often poor, themselves.

In distressing cases, Watu Wangu offers help under the Wakisukuma Wazee programme. In English, this means Help for the Elderly.

During the Corona period, the support of children and grandchildren fell away for many elderly people, threatening them to starve to death. Watu Wangu then set up the Msaada wa Chakula kwa Wazee (Food Aid for the Elderly) project under the program Wakisukuma Wazee. For about a year and a half, nearly 100 elderly people in the region were then visited weekly and helped with food and basic medical care.

Currently, under the Wakisukuma Wazee program, the Msaada wa Matibabu kwa Wazee (Medical Aid for the Elderly) project is running, under which medical help is provided to, usually elderly, men for complaints caused by benign prostate enlargement. This covers not only initial examination and diagnosis, but also hospital admission, palliative, medication and surgical treatment, and after care.

Mission Outreach Church is a church near Tulia, founded by Pastor Stephen Mutua. Stephen is an 'actions speak louder than words' kind of guy. He helps victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence; addicts; homeless people; and young people with problems.

Stephen worked from a simple building that he had built himself in 2015, on which he spent almost all his money. In early 2020, the region was ravaged by extreme rainfall. The building, made of pressed and dried clay blocks, turned out not to be resistant to this, and it almost completely collapsed. This complicated Stephen's work considerably.

Because of his many good works for the community Foundation Watu Wangu, with financial support of the Foundation Sybren Jochems Looijenga Fund, helped rebuild his little church. As from March 2022 Pastor Stephen Mutua is fully operational again.

Watu Wangu Children's Centre is the project for which Watu Wangu Foundation was established in the year 2007.

After completion of the build of the children's home in 2011, Watu Wangu Cbildren's Centre has cared for a large number of orphans and abandoned children for over six years, until they could be placed with families in the area.

Due to a combination of circumstances the children's centre was closed in 2017. At this time, there are no plans to restart the children's centre, but Foundation Watu Wangu does not rule this out for the future, as there is great need for care facilities for orphans and abandoned children.

Utoo Primary School is the primary school in Utoo, a hamlet near Tulia. The toilets of the children were collapsing and there was a shortage of water; the children each had to bring a few liters of water each day for use in the kitchen, for drinking and to wash their hands. Many children took water that came from the river. The hygiene situation was really bad, because most days there wasn't enough water for washing hands after toilet visits and for cleaning the toilets.

This was an untenable situation. Thanks to the help of Rotary Walcheren and a number of private sponsors, Foundation Watu Wangu renovated the toilet blocks, built a sink, placed and connected a water tank, and repaired the drain. Through the collection of rainwater and the supply of water from a borehole, the school now has sufficient pure water for their daily needs. The results were quickly visible, through a significant reduction in absenteeism due to illness.

The care for children costs money, and quality food is expensive. To save costs and to generate income, thanks to the support of several sponsors, among which main sponsor Jan Koeman, Foundation Watu Wangu was able to build four greenhouses to grow tomatoes and vegetables. We used the produce of the greenhouses primarily to feed the children, and any surplus was sold to Naivas supermarket in Kitui.

Maize and beans are among the staple foods in Kenya. Especially due to prolonged droughts, however, it happens regularly that harvesting fails. Then the prices of these products will increase up to four times or more compared to the prices in years with a normal harvest. As a result of increasing demand, prices of other food products will then also go up considerably.

To counter the effects of these peaks, Foundation Watu Wangu has built a storage facility for maize and beans. In times of good harvests, maize and beans are bought and stored, so that it can be used in times of scarcity. This not only saves costs, but also offers some certainty about the availability of food in times of scarcity.

The storage is set up for the benefit of Watu Wangu Children's Center, but it has already proved its worth to the poor local population, which is provided with food at a reasonable price in expensive times, and in some cases at no cost in the form of emergency food relief.

The population of Kenya is often poor. That certainly applies to the residents of Kitui West sub-county. It is an arid area where people are laboriously engaged in some agriculture and livestock farming, mostly for their own use. Due to prolonged drought there is often a shortage of food, sometimes even to such a degree, that many people are threatened with starvation.

During such periods Foundation Watu Wangu gives food relief to the poorest of these people.

In Kitui West sub-county people are poor and many of them laboriously engage in some form of agriculture and livestock farming, especially for their own use. This is of vital importance to them, because they do not have sufficient means to buy food.

Due to prolonged periods of drought, it regularly occurs that crops fail. This not only means that these people have much less food, or no food at all, but often also that there is no seed for the next crop. In addition to food aid, Foundation Watu Wangu then gives seeds to the poorest people for maize and beans, and for vegetables, so that they can plant again.

Water is of vital importance. That certainly needs no argument. This is of course most visible where water is scarce. That is the case in the dry area of Kitui West sub-county. Moreover, many people in this area are poor and therefore unable to buy water. They will often get their water from the river, if there is any in it, or from other surface water sources. That is very unhealthy due to a variety of bacteria en parasites in the water. Many people become ill from it.

To help with this, Foundation Watu Wangu has constructed 2 boreholes in the region. A borehole is a drilled hole in the ground with a diameter of about 15 centimeters in which a pump is installed to pump the water up. The depth of a borehole depends of course on the depth at which the water is located. A hydro-geological survey is carried out in advance to determine where sufficient water is available and accessible; this is partly dependent on the nature of the above soil layers. Our boreholes are resp. 45 and 120 meters deep.

One of the boreholes wat meant primarily for Watu Wangu Children's Centre, but additionally also to supply the local people with clean drinking water. Those who can afford it, will buy it at cost price; those who cannot afford it, will receive it at no cost or, in some cases, for a service in return.

Many poor people cannot afford medical aid, which means that they do not receive the medication or treatment they need to cure their sickness. Others need transportation to visit the doctor or the hospital. In many such cases Foundation Watu Wangu offers assistance

The old lady in the picture, for example, suffered from several physical complaints that got gradually worse and hindered her in her every day life. She had no money to go to the doctor to be examined. Foundation Watu Wangu took her to the hospital, where it was found that she had severe high blood pressure. After administering medication, she quickly recovered. Foundation Watu Wangu has paid for her medication against high blood pressure.

Such medication is not expensive, but make a world of difference for the quality of life.

Education is extremely important for building a good future. Everyone has the right to education. For various reasons education is not accessible to everyone. It also happens that students drop out of school due to reasons beyond their fault, for example due to domestic circumstances or illness.

In some cases Foundation Watu Wangu helps individual students to pick up and complete or start an education.

]For example Muli (see pictures) wanted nothing more than to become a Plant Operator. However, this required him to first get his driving license, and he didn't have the financial means for both the driving course and the school for Plant Operators. Foundation Watu Wangu helped him to obtain his driving license and then follow the course for Plant Operator at a renowned school. Muli completed the course successfully and now works in road construction.

Over the years, Foundation Watu Wangu has helped many students fulfill their dreams through a study in a variety of disciplines: medical, education, auto mechanics, electricians, economy, etc.

In 2025 and 2026, there are eight students supported by Foundation Watu Wangu.

In order to provide for their own livelihood and to get ahead in life, many enterprising people try to start their own business or trade. However, there is a lot involved, even when such a business is set up on a small scale. Not everyone has all the necessary knowledge and skills to successfully start a business. Foundation Watu Wangu has helped several people with information and training, and sometimes with a small start-up loan.

Among the businesses that Foundation Watu Wangu has helped set up are a shoe stall, a barber shop, a small cinema, a beauty salon, a goat farm, and a market garden. Most of these businesses are still operational and provide an income for the owners and their families.

Healthy and sufficient food is, of course, of vital importance. Farming is at the basis of the food supply. Foundation Watu Wangu has started a number of farming projects, such as a goat farm, for dairy and meat products, and a number of market gardens where maize and beans, as well as a variety of fruits and vegetables are grown. The produce is sold at the local markets or are part of the food relief programs when the need arises.