PROVIDING RELIEF FROM AFAR

Valentina Matiku spent the majority of her younger years trekking across the blistering hot savannah for
water – albeit dirty – so her family could drink, farm, bathe. Time spent on the life-sustaining task meant time not spent gaining education to forge a more promising future.

Sadly, Matiku’s story is not unique.

However, today she is in school, no longer burdened by daily water retrieval. This life-changing turn of events is thanks to 18 Lions clubs in Austria, which used a US$77,000 Matching grant from Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF) to help Lions in Tanzania expand water access to several rural Tanzanian communities, including Matiku’s.

The Land for Life project brought three new wells and six new water tanks to the Mara Region, construction crews focusing on infrastructure and other project members on training residents to use new agriculture and fish farming equipment. The project has eased water scarcity and increased farming output for nearly 5,000 people, proving sometimes, it’s important to serve our neighbors who live afar.