Grand ideas are easy to come by, but seeing them through is less so. Lily Muldoon’s grand idea involved overhauling the health, sanitation and education systems of Kayafungo, a sprawling series of 25 villages in Kenya comprised of 40,000 people. Her quest to see that idea come to fruition led her on an odyssey that would change her life forever.
Muldoon, 24, is a graduate of East High School who became involved with the Student Movement for Real Change (SMRC), a non-profit started by another East graduate, Saul Garlick, 25, who now leads the organization in Washington, D.C.
Muldoon approached Garlick with the idea of working in Kenya after reading an article about the Kenya water crisis. He told her that if she could find a community that SMRC could work with, then they could pursue the idea.
While attending Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., Muldoon spent a semester abroad in Kenya through the School for International Training and found Kayafungo in 2006. When she returned and pitched the idea to Garlick, the wheels were set in motion. Muldoon combined tireless fundraising efforts with a Fulbright scholarship to raise enough money for the year she would spend in Kenya.
“Lily should get credit for raising $100,000 for this project,” said Garlick. “She was an absolute rock star. I cannot overstate what an inspiration she is to me and to the organization.”
Muldoon found Kayafungo after looking for a community that met two of her qualifications. She needed a community that not only had a major water problem but also had a solution in mind.
“Kayafungo had a serious, serious water problem — I’ve never seen one that bad,” said Muldoon, who has traveled through the majority of east Africa. “Their water was brown — you could see the living organisms in it. They would walk miles each day to collect one bucket of water. People were sick all the time and kids missed school constantly.”
The solution that the Kayafungo community had in mind was the creation of a water pipeline, a project that has since fallen through due to governmental difficulties — but a project that Muldoon has not given up on.
After arriving in Kayafungo in March 2008, and realizing the water pipeline was not going to become a reality, she shifted her focus to new ways of creating access to clean water and improving the sanitation conditions.
“One of the most rewarding projects we did was the excavation of a dam — it allowed them to start doing work they would directly benefit from. The dam was dug manually during the dry season — it was a bad time — three people in Kayafungo had died of starvation the week before. There were 200 people working at the dam that first day. I’ve never seen so many babies at a construction site — mothers would have their children on their backs as they were digging.”
What started as a water project quickly evolved to include the construction of two schools after Muldoon witnessed the classroom situation that children endure.
“While we were building latrines, we realized that the education system was horrifying and we decided we had to do something about it,” she said. “Kids were learning underneath trees, using sticks in the sand to practice writing and using rocks as desks.”
Muldoon led an effort that culminated in the construction of a primary school and a secondary day school, which is the first of its kind in the entire region. The members of the Kayafungo community honored Muldoon by naming one of the schools after her — the Lily Bloom Secondary School. Muldoon’s year in Kayafungo resulted in some staggering accomplishments. She helped build 56 latrines and hand washing stations at schools and clinics, coordinated the hosting of mobile HIV testing days, built two schools, constructed and rehabilitated rainwater catchment systems, and conducted an intensive four-month health education workshop series with local community organizations.
She returned home to Denver in March, and while she appreciates her Kenyan experience immensely, she is happy to be back.
“It’s great being back — I love it. People ask me if I have culture shock, but I don’t. It’s different, not shocking. I lived in the U.S. for the first 22 years of my life. Being back makes me appreciate small things like hot showers and not having to bargain for everything.”
Muldoon is moving to Berkeley, Calif., on Monday, where she will be working as the internship coordinator for SMRC as well as an Emergency Medical Technician before applying to medical school.
Trying to fit a year’s worth of exhilaration, heartbreak and achievement into one thought is no easy task, but Muldoon has an enduring message she wants to pass along: “I really want this story to serve as an inspiration for young people — just because we’re students and maybe we don’t have that much experience, that doesn’t mean we can’t affect change. We have an amazing opportunity as young people — we have the ability to make lasting and sustainable change. I hope this story can serve as an example for youth that may not know what they want to do and maybe feels stuck where they are.”
More information
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