People sometimes ask whether a single donation really makes a difference. In the villages we serve, the answer is yes — and the people there will tell you so themselves. When word reached one village that a borehole might be coming, they didn’t wait quietly. They threw a party.
“The whole village is happy today, because we heard we're going to have clean water. We started a party to show our joy — and to let people know to help us put wells in our village.” — Moussa Keita, Kinienkoura
That is what hope looks like here. Now here is exactly where your gift goes.
We drill one complete well at a time. A deep, solar-powered, tested well for a village costs about $20,000. We drill deep through rock to reach clean water, install a solar pump, test the water to confirm it’s safe, and work with the community so the well keeps running for years. We don’t drill and leave.
And we bring the land back, too. As we drill, we train people in the village to restore the soil and greenery around the well, so the water and the land recover together.
One well moves many of the United Nations’ Global Goals at once:
Clean water (SDG 6), health (SDG 3), education (SDG 4), gender equality (SDG 5), less poverty (SDG 1), and healthier land (SDG 15). Solve the water, and you move all of them — because every one of those problems, the families of Kinienkoura traced back to a single cause: no clean water.
No gift is too small. Whether you fund a whole well or a few feet of it, you become part of the village that finally has water. [Link: Donate]