About 5000 people live in the Kenyan village of Kinakoni, about 300 kilometers from Nairobi. The entire Kitui County region in southeastern Kenya, where Kinakoni is located, is characterized by significant water shortages and many children show symptoms of malnutrition. Most families live on less than 10 euros a month.

From 2021 to 2024, a model project will be carried out in Kinakoni as an initiative of the stern - Hilfe für Menschen e.V. foundation together with the local main project partner Welthungerhilfe Kenya, in which the Wilo-Foundation, among others, is participating as a sponsor. The key topics of the pilot are WASH, Food, Technology, Livelihoods and Education. In the run-up to the project, the project managers from Stern and Welthungerhilfe Kenya were also guests at the Wilo Office in Nairobi for a brief meeting and were welcomed there by Belete Matebe (Wilo Kenya, MD) and Christine Amira (Wilo Kenya, Marketing).

The aim is to use the example of Kinakoni to highlight important structural problems that lead to hunger and malnutrition, and then - based on a comprehensive analysis - to develop suitable interlocking and therefore sustainable solutions to improve living conditions. In particular, the approach involves working with villagers and Kenyan startup companies to develop intelligent, smart solutions to permanently improve the sometimes life-threatening living conditions for Kinakoni's residents. To this end, the project initiators are working together with GreenTec Capital, a venture capitalist, among others. Ideally, this model should then also be used in other villages and regions.

The project is initially intended to run for three years and will be accompanied by comprehensive monitoring. 

Extensive information can be found on the project homepage.