Excellent Development - Small Charity, Big Achiever!

We would like to send our congratulations to our project partners in Kenya, Excellent Development who are thrilled to have won 'Small Charity, Big Achiever’ at the 2009 Third Sector Excellence Awards.

Stephen Cook, editor of the Third Sector magazine, said “The Third Sector team was impressed by just how far Excellent Development has come in its short life, moving from start-up charity to an organisation that has helped local communities in Kenya deliver a better future for thousands.”

Volunteers Dam building in Kenya this summer

Since 2002 Excellent Development and the communities with whom we work have built more than 220 small-scale sand dams, terraced over 1,080 km of terracing and planted over 592,000 trees.

The dry semi-arid regions of Africa suffer from poor soil fertility and low rainfall, and people often suffer from water and food shortages. Excellent Development's projects demonstrate what can be achieved when communities work together to solve their own problems.

Iviani self-help group are based in one of the driest areas of Kenya. They told us "We used to take our animals up to 10km to drink water - this year we take our animals 1-3km to drink after constructing the sand dams; this year the river channel did not dry up - we had a continuous flow in the channel. We used the water in the river channel to plant vegetables which we sold to raise income for the group."

Improving the availability of clean water and the productivity of land is more important than ever - global climate change will cause more droughts and more unpredictable weather in the coming years. Improving resilience by improving soil fertility, building up stocks of hardy seeds and capturing rainwater are key coping strategies.

Excellent Development is working with other organisations to spread the benefits of soil and water conservation across the semi-arid areas of the globe. There are 2.3 billion people currently living in dryland areas who could improve their lives by using these techniques.

Simon Maddrell, Executive Director, said “We’re thrilled to receive this award in recognition of what people can achieve when they come together with a common vision. Across the world, people need to be empowered to address the impacts of climate change by taking ownership of the problems and delivering their own solutions. The success of Excellent Development shows how small-scale projects led by the people themselves can create a global impact.”

Well done Excellent!

Find out more about how you can volunteer with Quest4Change.org andExcellent Development on the Water Relief project.