Dr. Preston Crowe is the President of Global Concern Incorporated, a Mississippi non-profit working primarily in Northern Kenya. In this role, Dr. Crowe leads the organization to partner with towns and villages for the purpose of assisting with sustainable community development. His focus is on finding leaders who are willing to work together with GCI in order to solve community-wide issues and to come up with strategies that help everyone. Preston has a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology and is able to use his years of experience in the counseling room to help groups of people overcome obstacles as they seek a brighter future.

Preston Crowe first visited Kargi, Kenya in 2010. His volunteer group worked to serve the Rendille tribe of Northern Kenya, one of the most underserved of Kenya’s people groups. Adequate clean water was noticeably lacking. Kargi’s water needs were served only by a few shallow hand dug wells and one deep well several miles away that was piped to town. Women and girls spent much of their day searching for and carrying water. This created a time-poverty that prevented them from doing other things that would benefit their families and community. An added challenge is that much of the water in this region contains potentially deadly contaminants such as Arsenic.

In 2019, Preston went back to Kargi, now as part of Global Concern Incorporated, a Mississippi 501(c)(3) whose purpose is conducting sustainable community development in Northern Kenya. One of their first projects would be to provide a new water source for the  community. GCI contracted the Eleos Project to perform Fracture Trace Analysis on an area that was promising for a drill site. Hydrogeological surveys confirmed there was water at this point. In 2020 drilling began and GCI waited to see if the water would be fit for human consumption. Testing demonstrated that the water was high in yield and in quality, with no trace of Arsenic. Furthermore, the water came days after the only other well in that area failed.

While finding the water was cause for celebration, the location of this well was 3 miles from Kargi. This would still be closer than some  water sources people were using, but it did little to offer practical help for the town in terms of drinkable water, water for hygiene, cooking, etc. In order to really benefit the town, the water needed to be connected to the people. GCI began fundraising to pipe the water through  the desert and over a significant increase in elevation. This would require mobilizing a team from Nairobi who could get the equipment and manpower needed for the task. A substantial portion of these funds came through GCI receiving a grant from the Alabama / Mississippi Section of the American Water Works Association. Again, they contracted the Eleos Project to help tackle the huge engineering feat, as well as the physical construction of this project. 

This project was completed in September of 2022, and is now fully operational. This presentation will provide an overview of this project.