Service since charter
Since 2014 the club has gone back to the same schools, dug wells in other people’s counties, and taken the Village Caravan somewhere new every year.
Recently
Village Caravan · Ng’iya, Siaya County
The 2023/24 Village Caravan went to Ng’iya in Siaya County. The club backed the Jokinda Moyie Self Help Group with 100 plastic seats and a 100-sitter tent to grow their economic activities, then planted hundreds of trees along the River Yala.
“We donated a tent and seats and planted hundreds of trees next to River Yala in support of Jokinda Moyie Self Help Group.”
IPP Barrack Odero
Basic education and literacy
Boxes of books, unpacked and handed over. Reading material has travelled with the Caravan since Kamserseka in 2017/18, alongside the water tanks and the stationery.
Since 2014
The club’s very first project was an adopt-a-desk drive at Mlolongo Primary School. Desks went to Busia in 2017/18, a hundred to Nanyuki in 2020/21, and a District Grant funded more at Mlolongo again in 2022/23. Some service work looks like a logistics problem, because that is what it is.
Member wellbeing
Membership Director PP Isabella Olwenyo leads members through the Switch Fitness Centre monthly family walk, with Rotarians and Rotaractors turning out together: a 12 km walk, then a dance session, then a healthy breakfast.
“We serve better when we are well.”
The pattern
Read the twelve-year record and the same two names keep appearing. Rotary calls this sustainability. In practice it means finishing what you started, then noticing the next thing that needs doing.
2014/15 → 2025/26
Twelve years, six projects
2019/20 → 2024/25
Six years, buildings and mentors
Mentorship has run for four of the last five years — the quietest line in the record, and the one that costs the most Thursdays.
Eight destinations
Once a year the club packs up and goes somewhere it does not live. The Caravan has crossed Kenya from Busia to Nanyuki to Kajiado since 2016, and it is the closest thing the club has to a tradition.
2016/17
Two rainwater harvesting tanks, a printer and stationery.
2017/18
Two rainwater tanks, books and stationery.
2017/18
Fifty water filter buckets.
2017/18
Desks for a local primary school.
2020/21
One hundred desks, in a pandemic year.
2022/23
A borehole supplying a school, a dispensary and the community, with RC Santa Barbara.
2023/24
A hundred seats, a 100-sitter tent, and hundreds of trees on the Yala.
2024/25
Dormitory fencing, trees, and three computers for the secondary school.
The full record
Every project the Rotary Club of Syokimau has recorded, by Rotary year, from the club’s own register.
2014/15
Adopt a desk, Mlolongo Primary School
The club’s first project after charter.
2015/16
Desks for Mlolongo Primary School
Global Grant
Kyaani Secondary School borehole and solar-powered pump
In partnership with the Rotary Club of Santa Barbara, United States.
2016/17
Village Caravan
Nyabikongori
Two tanks for rainwater harvesting, a printer and stationery.
2017/18
Village Caravan
Kamserseka
Two tanks for rainwater harvesting, books and stationery.
Village Caravan
Ukwala
Fifty water filter buckets donated.
Village Caravan
Busia
Desks to a local primary school.
2018/19
District Grant
Operating room equipment, Imara Health Centre
In partnership with the Rotary Club of Eganville, Canada.
Medical camp in Mlolongo
2019/20
Two classrooms at St. Augustine Secondary School, Mlolongo
2020/21
Covid-19 response
Food packs to residents of Kicheko, Syokimau, and hand-wash stations distributed.
Village Caravan
Nanyuki
One hundred desks donated.
2021/22
Five partners
Three boreholes rehabilitated — Kyaani, Mitaboni and Ngunyumu
With Novartis, Davis & Shirtliff, the Rotary Club of Nairobi Magharibi and the county government of Machakos.
Mentorship at St. Augustine Secondary School
2022/23
Global Grant
Water project and solar pump, Kijani Farm, Kajiado
In partnership with the Rotary Club of Wauwatosa-Mayfair, United States.
District Grant
Desks funded at Mlolongo Primary School
Village Caravan
Bungoma
A borehole supplying a school, a dispensary and the surrounding community, with the Rotary Club of Santa Barbara.
Hairdressing equipment for a local vocational centre
2023/24
St. Augustine pit latrines fitted with Sato pans
Cutting smell and flies.
Mentorship at St. Augustine Secondary School
Village Caravan
Ng’iya, Siaya County
A self-help group supported with 100 plastic seats and a 100-sitter tent to improve their economic activities, and hundreds of trees planted along the River Yala.
2024/25
Mlolongo Health Centre
Waiting bay benches provided, privacy screens fitted and rooms painted.
District Grant
110 laboratory stools for the new labs at St. Augustine Secondary School
Mlolongo Primary School pit latrines fitted with Sato pans
Mentorship at St. Augustine Secondary School
Village Caravan
Kyumani Primary and Secondary
Dormitory fencing funded to improve security, trees planted, and three computers provided to improve ICT at the secondary school.
Safaricom Foundation
Modern toilet block at Mlolongo Primary School
2025/26
Dignity kits to Mlolongo schools
Nobody does this alone
A club of forty-seven cannot sink a borehole on subscriptions alone. Global and District Grants, partner clubs abroad and companies at home are what turn a Thursday resolution into a water system.
Every project here started with someone turning up on a Thursday.