About a month ago I reached out to my friends trying to find support (3000 US$) to have 3 wells in indigenous communities build (see one of the former blog-entries for more details) and the response was overwhelming. With the support of the donation-matching-program of my former employer Deutsche Bank we now got a staggering 13,000 US$ together. This will enable us to build 7 wells in indigenous communities providing over 4,200 people with direct access to water. Furthermore we will be able to ensure the maintenance of the wells and support a school-building project from UWS (more to that in the future).
With the donations coming in we started building the first 2 wells in the 'Tien' and 'Jong' communities last week with finishing both of them on Friday. I have visited the 'Tien' site and impressive what work has been achieved there. The well has been dug 23 meters deep, by handcraft in a claustrophobic 1,5 meter radius hole. The air down their apparently is super thin and the constant fear
of being buried alive is present, certainly nothing for people with weak
nerves. Seeing though the people using the well once it was finished is
certainly worth it. The build of an additional 2 wells will be started this Monday and the remainder being done in May when the donations through the DB matching program are coming through.
It is hard to explain how this response made me feel and I guess 'humbling' is the only word that comes to my mind. Therefore I want to say
a true and big THANK YOU to everybody who supported this
effort and offered their help. To be able to witness on the behalf of
all the donors the impact of providing people with something so basic
and essential as water is simply moving.
I will provide more updates as this little "project" continues but enclosed some pictures to get an impression:
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| 23 meters down - 1,5 meter wide |
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| The "building site" - there is a man down there! |
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