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President's Volunteer Service AwardFebruary 16, 2010
"Congratulations on receiving the President's Volunteer Service Award, and thank you for helping to address the most pressing needs in your community and our country." - President Barack Obama Dr. Elijah Korich, WTS DMin 1991, is an elder at Germantown Christian Assembly and founder of Keiyo Soy Ministries. It is a charity of 20 Delaware Valley congregations — Baptists, Presbyterians and Mennonites among them — funding a construction project in Kenya's Keiyo Valley that's supplying clean drinking water for hundreds of people in three communities. In the past 50 years, the Keiyo Valley has had a drought every four years. World Water Facts • One billion people without access to clean drinking water • 2.6 billion without adequate sanitation • Rapid urbanization increasing pressure on water resources • 30-40% of water 'lost' through illegal tapping and leaks (Source: UN World Water Report)
Dr. Elijah Korich, founder and chairman of Keiyo Soy Ministries (KSM) believes it requires empowering communities and assisting them in identifying and developing local resources. Ascertaining sustainable development in rural Africa can only be achieved by engaging individual communities in the development of their local resources. Preservation of natural resources, water catchments, preservation of forests, planting of trees, food self-sufficiency, crop production, livestock development, water development and irrigation, public health clinics, education, and local capacity building are among the activities Keiyo Soy Ministries is striving to achieve in the next five years. Income generating development includes production of crops for local consumption and cash crops like coffee, fruits for local markets, and eventually the exporting of these products will provide communities with foreign currency. Click here for a message from the chairman. |
