In August 2004, experts from the Earth Institute at New York's Columbia University and the UN approached the villagers of Sauri to see if they would like to take part in a project - and become a UN "Millennium Village".

The idea was to show that an integrated approach to development, which tackled multiple needs and responded to local conditions, could lay the foundations for long-lasting change, even in the most difficult circumstances.

The village and the government provided just over half the funding; the rest was in international aid.