Today, I’d like to share our growth, the impact, and your opportunity to play a part.
While 2024 will mark my twentieth year in South Sudan and see us move beyond 2,700 completed water projects, our work is just beginning. Now that women-led repair teams are blanketing two states, we can see a day when ALL SOUTH SUDANESE will enjoy clean water daily.
The South Sudanese staff operates as Women’s Empowerment Solutions Initiative, a Water is Basic local NGO. This next year, 18 local staff will provide logistics, warehouse oversight, driving, reporting, training, etc, and we expect to reach more than 700 well repairs in 2024.
This growth is still managed and led by the same faithful Water is Basic team in the USA. I am in Austin, TX, Carrie in Atlanta, and Abbey in Denver. We have been digital nomads working from our kitchens and coffee shops since our first day of operations. We aim to be low-cost and efficient, and our annual audits prove our diligence.
All of this work, the reporting, the updates, the raising of funds, and the actual work in the field will require $1,400,000 in 2024. It will take a village to make everything happen, from schools, churches, foundations, and you, our most faithful supporters.
You have the power to make a difference.
That’s why I’m inviting you to keep the good going today. Your thoughtfulness will:
Provide access to clean water for another 200,000 people in 2024.
Encourage consistent management of our work by extremely committed staff.
Ensure another group of women-led pump mechanics is trained and deployed.
That’s the big picture, but it's important you know what your support means to people like Ahok Akuei Baak, a 38-year-old mother of seven children. She shared, “Today is a happy day for us because WESI technicians have repaired our pump after 90 days of its breakdown. During the breakage period, we traveled to a neighboring community called Yargot to get clean water, a 30-minute walk away. Because of the long distance, we could not get water for all the household chores. So, the only thing we could do was to get drinking water from Yargot while water from nearby ponds for cooking and bathing."
It costs, on average, $1,000 to repair a well, meaning just $20 gives water to an entire household like Ahok's.
