Residents are making a final push to help a Kane'ohe woman raise $30,000 to build a well in a town in Africa where she was born 86 years ago.

Alice Yoder still needs several thousand dollars for a well for Githumu Hospital, a 30-bed facility in an extremely poor area outside Nairobi, Kenya.

"I wanted to put in a well for them so they would always have clean water and they would always have enough," she said.

The hospital has never had a well and uses rainwater caught in a cistern, which Yoder says "turns your stomach when you see it."

When that dries up, the staffers use water from the river to run the hospital.

Friends and members of Yoder's church, First Presbyterian, will hold an "upscale garage sale" in Hawai'i Kai tomorrow to raise the remaining money.

Everything being sold is nearly new and the organizers have been choosy in accepting the items, said Nancy Schoocraft, who is coordinating the sale.

So far, they have amassed an assortment of jewelry, antiques, furniture and designer clothing, and will also be selling plants and baked goods.

Schoocraft, a retired healthcare professional, said Yoder's mission "tugged at my heartstrings because I couldn't imagine a hospital without water."

"She really is quite a lady, for being 86 years old and to go there and continue to help the hospital," she added.

Yoder's parents were missionaries in Kenya. She was born in Githumu and lived there until she was 3 years old.

She has returned to visit the hospital several times since leaving the country, most recently in early 2007, when she, members of her church and several family members painted the hospital walls and installed new drapes and curtains.

The staff "were so tickled and so pleased because no one has ever helped them," she said.

If Yoder raises more than her $30,000 goal, she plans to give the rest to the hospital to fix broken medical equipment.

Githumu Hospital has one doctor, a staff of about 15 people and a surgeon who works there only periodically. The staff used an old Jeep as an ambulance until last year, when they received a new ambulance from the government.

Because the hospital is in the highlands, workers will have to drill thousands of feet to create the well, making it a very expensive undertaking that the hospital would never be able to pay for itself, Yoder said.

She had planned to personally deliver the check at the end of this month, but her trip is on hold for now because of civil unrest in Kenya following the presidential elections in December. A U.S. State Department travel warning is also in effect for the country.

She says she hopes to return to Githumu soon.

"When you go back, you just feel like that's your home," she said.

"I just felt that this is where my roots are. Those people are so grateful for everything you do. For what little they have ... they're just truly grateful."