Executive Insights
The Freedom to Dream

Sara Myers, WMO2H Executive Director
Published on the 28th of April, 2026
Traveling to Kenya each year to witness the need and impact of our work is always and continuously life-changing. Life-changing for myself, for my team, and for those who support our mission and choose to journey with us. And I imagine it’s equally meaningful for the communities we meet with and listen to who are now living with access to clean water.

Each year, I’m reminded firsthand of what becomes possible with the presence of water. At four different community water projects across Central and South-Western regions of Kenya, we heard how water has not only restored dignity, improved health, and made farming possible, but it has also unlocked something else: the freedom for people to actually dream and plan for the future.
And dream and plan they do. Together, we reviewed plans for expanding water piping systems, toured budding regenerative agriculture and fish farms, and witnessed the development of an automated, self-service water kiosk. We heard deeply personal dreams, too.

Mothers hoping their children can go to school, often because they themselves were never afforded the opportunity of education when they were young. Dreams of starting businesses. Of building stability. Of finally having the freedom to thrive.

We visited a community where we built a water borehole project seven years ago, which now supports a boarding school that’s piping the water. We learned that this year, the community used the revenue from the water sales to purchase mattresses for the school children. Before this, the children were sleeping on hard concrete.
I know these visits are meaningful for all of us, Americans and Kenyans alike, because we gathered together by the hundreds and hundreds. All of us present because of one shared cause: clean water. A cause that has a ripple effect and a shared, intimate connection impossible to ignore.

These trips can often feel like whirlwinds, so this year I did my best to stay present and pause to really take in what I was seeing, hearing, and feeling. Looking around at a sea of people - joyous, smiling, jubilant people - it hit me hard: this is all because of water. Something that is so easily taken for granted when you’ve always had access to it. Life can be hard -made harder when you happen to be born in a country with very limited access to basic human rights.

Experiencing these moments, the long days confronting the harsh realities of the water crisis alongside the pure joy that emerges when a community feels seen, is difficult to capture and sometimes even harder to process. Still, knowing that we play a small part in easing burdens and making life, and the world, a little brighter is something I never take for granted.

Until next time, asante sana.