Olympic gold medal that gave a village new lease of life in Kenya
Posted on Aug 29, 2016
RIGHT: Kenya's Faith Kipyegon celebrates winning the gold medal in the women's 1500m Final at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games on August 16, 2016. LEFT: Faith's father Samuel Koech outside their house in Nakuru County. PHOTOS | AFP and SULEIMAN MBATIAH
By FRANCIS MUREITHI
When the dazzling Faith Chepng'etich Kipyegon set the Olympic Stadium in Rio de Janeiro ablaze, she did not know that her gold medal would be the only thing that would trigger the supply of electricity to the little-known Ndabibit village in Nakuru County where she comes from.
The village has been plagued with darkness for nearly four decades since the residents settled there in the 1980s.
And when she finally jets into the country on Friday, Faith will not only receive a red carpet welcome but will also be stepping into a new look home as her father's homestead has been connected to power supply thanks to her gold medal.
When she left the country for national duties in Rio, her village was in darkness and her father could not follow the games.
Moments after winning the gold medal in the wee hours of August 17, her father, Mr Samuel Koech Kipyegon, 56, had only one plea to President Uhuru Kenyatta.
"I urge President Uhuru Kenyatta to make sure our village is connected to electricity so that I can see my daughter Faith running and winning medals for Kenya," said Mr Koech.
And his prayers were answered almost instantly as a day after his plea was exclusively highlighted by the Daily Nation, the Kenya Power team was on the ground dropping power line poles.
LOTS OF GOODIES
The construction of the power line to Faith father's homestead took a record nine days and last Friday (August 26), Ndabibit village was a beehive of activities as jubilant residents flocked the homestead to witness the switching on of the electricity.
The ceremony was officiated by the Cabinet Secretary for Energy Charles Keter who was accompanied by the Kenya Power Managing Director Ben Chumo and Olkalou MP David Kiaraho.
"We thank Faith for delivering us from the powers of darkness because as long as we live we shall remember her and the gold she won because today our village has been connected to power because of her sterling performance at the Olympic Games," said a neighbour Mr Benard Lang'at.
"I only thank God for giving me such a wonderful daughter who has transformed our village and I pray to God to give her strength and good health so that she could win more medals for Kenya," said Mr Kipyegon.
The switching on of the electricity at Mzee Kipyegon homestead came with a lot of goodies. Following the exploits of her seventh born daughter, Samsung has pledged to supply him with a flat screen TV set while SuperSport will provide him with a decoder.
Mr Keter donated Sh100,000 to the family while M Kiaraho donated Sh10,000 for the purchase of an oven.
Rajendra Singh, Waterman of India
He is a hero in the state of Rajasthan. A water conservationist from Alwar district in Rajasthan, Rajendra Singh is known to have revived five rivers that had been dried up for years. In the 1940s, at a very young age, he observed that the population of his district was reducing as most villagers had moved over to other areas after the local Arvari River dried up. This gave him a strong desire to help his people in the village and the only way this could be done was to bring back water to those villages. It was his pure intelligence that helped him to devise a strategy. He introduced the concept of 'johads'. These are rainwater storage tanks built with any materials available such as stones, dirt and concrete.
These johads were built on streams that flowed into the river so that it could replenish both ground and surface water levels. He also built 'check dams' across streams to improve the downstream flow. Initially, his strategy did not work, but he did not give up hope. He kept on building dams and tanks for two years and eventually his concept was a success. The water gathered in the johads during the monsoons gradually rejuvenated crops and vegetation in the villages. Aquifers were refilled for local drinking water. The retention capacity of water in the soil also increased. Arvari River came back to life. Four other dried up rives also came back to life and the villagers who had left came back and got back their traditional way of life. He started his NGO 'Tarun Bharat Sangh' (TBS) in 1970. He has fought against slow bureaucracy, mining lobby and has helped his people to take charge of water management. His NGO has so far helped build over 8,600 johads and brought water back to over 1,000 villages. His exceptional work has given him the nickname 'Waterman of India'. He has also been awarded various awards, the most popular being the Stockholm Water Prize, an award known as 'the Nobel Prize for water', in 2015. In 2008, The Guardian magazine named him amongst its list of "50 people who could save the planet".
Sindhutai Sapkal, Mother of Orphans
A social worker, a social activist, "Mother of Orphans", she is Sindhutai Sapkal, known for raising orphan children. A living legend, she has helped more than a thousand impoverished children. At a very young age of 20, she was thrown out of her house by her husband. With an infant baby girl in her hands, she had no one to turn to. Her parents were poor. Initially, she wanted to end her gruesome life, but then during this period of homelessness, she came to see the pathetic conditions of the street children and orphans. She then decided not to give up hope and fight against the cruelty of India's male dominated society. Soon she started her life again with full vigour and confidence by resolving to give the orphan children a better and decent life. Years passed by and the number of orphans and street children under her care kept on increasing. With a smile on her face, with courage and determination she helped hundreds of children and also encouraged few others to join her. She was not known to the outside world as she did her work silently. It was the Marathi film "Mee Sindhutai Sapkal" on her life and works in 2010 that made people to know her. She has been honoured for several times since then. Till date, she has given home and motherly care to more than 1000 children and some of these orphans have grown up to be doctors and lawyers. She uses all the money that she receives from charity in helping and providing education to orphans. Thus she has been rightly named the 'Mother of Orphans'. We salute this great lady.
Kalyanasundaram
A fine living example of charity is Kalyanasundaram. While we all work and slog to live a comfortable lifestyle, Kalyanasundaram was different. This man from Tamil Nadu and a librarian by profession, who is now 73 years old, has given a complete new definition to charity. Whatever he has earned as a librarian, he has donated every single rupee. He does odd part time jobs now to meet his ends meet. For the last 30 years of his life, his monthly salary had gone to those who were in need. His entire pension of Rs 10 lakhs was also donated to help the poor. He lives a very simple life. He did not get married with the intention of helping the needy. In fact, he also lived on the streets and railway stations to get the feel of reality. He did not keep a single rupee for himself. After his retirement, he founded Palam, an organization that helps donors to reach out to the poor. The organization collects money and materials and distributes it to those who need it. A gold medallist in Library Science and MA in Literature and History, he has received many honours and awards in his lifetime, including an award of Rs. 30 crore, which was also donated to help the poor and needy. It is really very difficult to find such a selfless man in today's age. But we have Kalyanasundaram with us who has a will to serve humanity till the end.
Jadav Payeng: Forest Man of Assam
Assam's Jadav Payeng, the forest man, has done a great service to humanity in an altogether different way. His service is not helping the poor. It is an indirect service to mankind that he does by working towards saving the environment. Yes, you have read it right. This man, single-handedly has grown a huge forest on a 550-hectare sandbar in the middle of the river Brahmaputra. It was way back in 1979 when floods in Assam led a large number of snakes to come ashore on the sandbar. Jadav was 16 years old then and he saw in front of his eyes the snakes dying one after the other due to severe heat as there were no trees on the sandbar. It was painful for young Jadav to see this and he sought the help of the forest department but it was of no use. He then decided to plant trees on his own in that region. He left his home and education and started living on the sandbar. He watered the region, planted trees, collected red ants from his village to enhance fertility of the soil. Soon the whole region was converted into a beautiful forest with great variety of fauna and flora. It now has many endangered animals, including one-horned rhinos and Royal Bengal tigers. Vultures and migratory birds have started flocking to this region. It was in 2008 that the Assam state forest department came to know about Payeng's forest when some 100 wild elephants strayed into it.
At a time when people are keen on cutting forests to accommodate the increased urbanisation, it is indeed rare to find a man like Jadav Payeng, now 47 years old, sincerely involved in creating and protecting the forest, along with its wild animals. He is still a lesser known person though he has been awarded the Padma Shree recently. He lives up to the name of the "Forest Man of India". In the month of October 2013, he was honoured at the Indian Institute of Forest Management during their annual event 'Coalescence'.
Kailash Satyarthi
Last but not the least, we have with us Kailash Satyarthi. Till the time he won the Nobel Peace Prize, nobody knew him. An electrical engineer by profession, he gave up his job almost 30 years back to dedicate his life to protecting child rights. He is known to have freed almost 80,000 child labourers from various parts of India and have given them a new lease of life. At 60 years, he has become the global voice of child rights. His NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan is the most popular child rights group in India today, rescuing children who are employed as bonded labourers.
His fame is not restricted to India. He has also been a leader of the Global March Against Child Labour in the late 1990s to raise awareness about children abused globally in a form of modern slavery. The certified tag RugMark, an international tag that implies carpets made in factories as child labour-free was founded by Satyarthi. More recently, he has also started operations to help young girls who have been sold into brothels and or are living abusive forced marriages. He and his NGO has rescued these young children and have rehabilitated them by teaching them various skills and trades. He has been awarded various prestigious international awards for his services. But we came to know this "lesser-known" person only after he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Posted by: Murli dhar Gupta <mdguptabpl@gmail.com>
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