We knew women suffered the most from dirty water when we launched the Women's Well Repair Initiative in 2020, but we also knew the impact they could have when given just a few resources.
What we said then...
Because women make things happen, we said moving from a charity to an equity model the women's well technicians would impact the local economy, and our efforts would be far more scalable and repeatable.
We now know all of that was accurate. But it's the daily stories we receive that move us to more—stories like Aboula Garang Deng's, a head teacher at Panjap Primary School.
My name is Abuola Garang Deng. I am married with three children who are now in school. I am 31 years old and teach at Panjap Primary School. I am very happy today that our well is repaired after one year and three months of breakage.
In this school, we have over 200 children who get water from this pump inside the school compound. We also have about 200 households around here in this community who also get water from this well. Since last year, we have suffered a lot here in school due to the lack of water. During that time, we released pupils early before the sun got hot because they became thirsty when they stayed until noon and had no water to drink. So, the school authority decided that children should be allowed to go home before it gets hot, interrupting our school timetable and cutting some of the lessons out daily.
Our school also lost school feeding due to lack of water because it is one of the criteria for the World Food Program to have water in the school. However, we approached them last week and told them that WESI would repair our well and requested them to release our food, which they accepted. Now that our well is working again, we will get food for our school, and our children will get all the lessons according to the timetable.
Imagine Aboula's relief in knowing her students will now have water, food, AND an education!
