Eastern Nazarene College Conservation Biology Lab students help support a village in Mwiyenga, Kenya

Since the start of the 2021 Fall semester, Eastern Nazarene College Conservation Biology Lab students, led by Professor Jonathan E. Twining, have been working on a multi-faceted project to support a village in Kenya, Mwiyenga. This project has included the construction of a well to provide clean drinking water to the village, the development of a native tree nursery consisting of 10,000 trees for the community, and the protection of a small parcel of land as a conservation area for native plants and animals. The students raised over $3,000 for the construction of the well, and others have donated to the tree nursery.

Back Row left to right: Samantha Baston, Sophia Fevola, Mithni Lagene-Bazile, Victoria Parenti, Chelsea DeMartini; Front Row Left to Right: Prof. Twining, Sarah Moschini, Jose Ruiz-Gomez, Francis Ferguson, Matthew Muldowney; Not pictured: Feven Woldesenbet and Sami Walaieh

Professor Twining states, “ENC is working toward the goal of becoming an institution that demonstrates social justice.  The well project that our students are working on involves a social justice issue – women of color having to make the choice between walking miles to get clean water for their families every day or using the contaminated water from the nearby river that might make their families sick.  Now they will have a source of clean drinking water in their own community.  I am very proud of our students for working so hard to make this a reality for the community of Mwiyenga, Kenya.”

The students involved in this project are also creating a management plan for the village council on how to maintain this conservation area. With the implementation of this project, the women of the village no longer need to walk miles for clean drinking water or risk drinking from the contaminated, local river.