Kinesi Village

Primary Water

Organic Gardening and Trees

Alternative Health

Malaria Control

Sustainable Technology

Microfinance

Education

FGM Prevention

AIDS Orphans Support

Kinesi Village Project

GRA is currently focusing much of its attention and resources on a rural East African community called Kinesi Village. Like many small villages in the Lake Victoria region of Tanzania, average per-capita income is less than 50 cents a day. Many of the comforts we take for granted - like safe water, plumbing, electricity, telephones and television - remain distant dreams to all but a handful of village residents.

The Kinesi Project is GRA's small contribution to meeting the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, which aim to halve the number of people in the world suffering from abject poverty, hunger and lack of access to clean water and basic sanitation by the year 2015.

GRA and its village partners have identified nine key areas of development essential to achieving a life more abundant for the people of Kinesi:

  • Water resource development - focusing on primary ("earth generated") groundwater sources
  • Alternative healthcare - with special attention to malaria control
  • Education - enhancing primary & secondary school enrollment and facilities
  • Microfinance - small loans to promote micro-enterprise activities
  • Organic gardening and permaculture
  • Appropriate technology - utilizing wind and solar energy
  • Sustainable housing - using stabilized earth block
  • Sanitation - promoting the use of simple composting toilets
  • Care of orphans and disabled members of the community, such as those impacted by the AIDS pandemic.

All GRA's programs and projects are designed and implemented in collaboration with local residents and organizations through a process called Community Participatory Development, where all residents are represented and claim a stake in the positive outcome of projects.
Hopefully, the natural, holistic and sometimes unconventional approaches which prove successful in Kinesi will serve as models for other sub-Saharan communities striving to improve their quality of life by living in harmony with nature and working cooperatively to ensure that each member of the community enjoys a life of dignity, joy and abundance.

Aerial view of Kinesi Village


Arriving at Kinesi Village by boat


Volunteers at work on Kinesi's secondary school building