Pete & Sharon (AKA Shaz) have been married for 36 years and have two magnificent girls, Liz and Hannah. While Liz is still happily single, Hannah is married to Luke and they have blessed us with four grandkids.

Hannah and tribe live in Airlie Beach, Queensland, Australia. After a few years break, Liz has moved back to Nairobi

 

PETE

Pete grew up in a small town (Tokoroa) New Zealand and along with his sister was adopted into a family of 4 other siblings. Pete struggled with school due to his dyslexia but found he thrived putting his hand to practical areas such as farming. He met Sharon at a drop in centre for young people and decided she was the one to marry (even though she was still at school). He left Tokoroa for a year to attend The Bible College of New Zealand and to his surprise actually passed the course. In 1987 they married, had a couple of kids, then when Hannah, the youngest was 8 weeks old, he packed them off to Australia to live in a caravan for 3 months while he attended Bible College. They returned back to New Zealand to be youth and children’s pastors for the next 16 years. After living in Christchurch for 2 years they decided to sell all and move to Sydney, Australia.

During that time Pete has worked in the construction industry, then went out on his own starting a handyman business. It gave him the flexibility to travel, assist Sharon with BeyondWater and not have to travel 90 minutes too and from work each day.

While in Hawaii in 2011 Pete decided it was time to move on from Sydney and invest the next part of his life into developing the lives of young people in East Africa.

Not only is Pete a co-founder of BeyondWater, he oversees the logistics, building projects and finances. He’s also in charge of making sure everyone in the office becomes a convert to drinking coffee!

Likes:

• Sport
• Fishing
• Coffee
• Hanging out with family and friends
• Travel
• Car racing

Dislikes:

• Spelling, writing, reading
• Avocado, yoghurt, coconut, ugali, gatheri

 

SHARON

When she was 10 years old Sharon did a study on the manyatta of Kenya and ever since then has been keen as mustard on the country. It wasn’t until 27 years later she got to go on her first trip there and she’s been going back ever since. Travel is high on her list of favourite things including trips to India, USA, NZ, London, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Dubai and Brunei. Sharon discovered a passion for photography, which she does best while on the road. In 2009 she completed a Master in Business Administration which has helped her out as she and Pete started BeyondWater after discovering that more than a billion people don’t have access to safe, clean drinking water. Currently she is studying to achieve a Diploma in Digital Photography.

Likes:

• People
• Chocolate
• Traveling
• Reading
• Movies
• Photography

Dislikes:

• Hot, spicy food
• Tardiness
• A messy house
• Small thinking

LIZ

Liz was born in Tokoroa, New Zealand but has actually lived in three countries. She was homeschooled in NZ, went to high school and polytech in Aussie, moved to Kenya in 2012, back to NZ in 2017 and then returned to Kenya in 2023.

Liz is a high functioning autistic and has surpassed all the things the specialists said she couldn’t do. Liz loves sport and achieved the Sports Person of the Year in 2022 for her touch rugby club.

Since moving back to Kenya, Liz has become a part of the BeyondWater team. She’s a whiz on databases, is great at media and also keeps the team enthused by being the DJ.

Likes:

• Sport
• Meat
• Going to the gym
• Photography
• Chapatis

Dislikes:

• Spicy food
• Waking up early
• Crossing busy roads by myself