You Can Change a Life
We’re making real-life impacts in the lives of the vulnerable children. We’re helping to sustain the village, as well as create career paths for teachers, pastors, and others in the village. We’ve recoded some recent success stories below for you to see the impact you can make.
Championing Children with Special Needs
Kaleo Global recognizes children with special needs and is introducing teachers to curriculum that specializes in children with unique challenges.
Elkiya
Elkiya is a little girl living in Dunchay village who suffered from severe dermatitis. The skin on her face, arms, and legs were covered in itchy, irritated patches. Her family tried traditional methods of healing but they were unsuccessful. Her skin condition not only caused physical discomfort, but also emotional distress. Elkiya was ostracized because of her appearance, and she became more withdrawn and isolated as she was rejected by her peers.
We knew we had to help Elkiya see a doctor. We brought her to a dermatologist in the capital, which is a 17-hour journey from Dunchay Village. The dermatologist gave her a simple diagnosis of eczema and the necessary medication to treat it. Elkiya’s skin is now healed, her smile has returned, and she is included by her friends at school.
Water
In Dunchay village, it is the women's job to get firewood and water for their families. Water is needed for almost every daily task, including drinking, washing clothes, washing dishes, washing floors, bathing, and cooking.
It’s a long and arduous 3 mile walk to get water. The women collect the water in plastic jugs that become extremely heavy when full. They tie the jugs to their backs, and then they must make the long journey up a very steep hill to return to the village.
Although gathering water is far and difficult, the even greater challenge is the cleanliness of the water. This water may be filled with bacteria that can cause serious illnesses, and even death.
Kaleo Global has been hard at work for three years trying to find a solution to Dunchay Village's water crisis. We called dozens of water ministries/companies but were met with response that they are not working in this remote area yet.
Majang woman getting water.
One of the many challenges we faced is the difficulty of getting the big rigs that can drill for water to the remote area of the forest where the Majang live. They only have one road going to the village, and a section of it was washed away during the rainy season years ago and never repaired. People and cars must cross a flowing river to get to the village, making it extremely difficult for large construction vehicles to reach the village. Additionally, tribal instability and civil wars add another layer of risk, making the area dangerous to travel though.
Video of our team crossing the river where the bridge washed out.
Our team remained persistent and continued to look for ways to bring clean water to the village. But, as we explored different options, the children were still getting sick from dirty water. As a temporary solution, we brought in special filtered water bottles, but the filters had to be replaced every 6 months. We knew this was not sustainable, so we continued to search for a permanent solution.
In summer of 2023, we found a possibility that could solve our water issue! There was an old water tank miles away from the village, and then to our surprise, we also found a large generator. The generator was vandalized and in terrible shape. It had sat broken for years and everyone we consulted said it probably couldn’t be fixed, but we knew trying to fix it was our best option. After finding the water tank and old generator, we followed the broken pipes that led to the water source. We were thrilled to discover an underground artesian well that had beautiful, pure, clean water! We waited with anticipation for the engineers from the capital to make the 17-hour trek to see if they could fix it.
Actual footage of the generator starting for the first time in many years.
They did a cheer in hopes that it would start.
And the cheer worked! Listen to the end of the video to hear them screaming WATER!
They spent weeks repairing and replacing the pipes and were able to bring the pipes all the way to our school and church.
The work was successful, and the village now has clean running water! This was an extraordinary effort that will transform the lives of the Majang people.