In South Sudan, schools have shuttered their doors for a brief respite amidst the scorching heat that would otherwise consume their precious time. But this isn't the typical Spring Break getaway to Florida's beaches or Colorado's snowy slopes. No, it's a different kind of break – a Heat Break.
This story of Water is Basic is way bigger than clean water. It’s economic opportunity, generational transformation, women's empowerment, and hope for a nation.
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.
Elizabeth says, “I currently live with my five children, and my job in well repair is promising as my work partner, Abraham Maker, and I have managed to repair twenty-seven wells. We have already scheduled to repair other wells next week. My community is pleased with my work, and I earn money through well repair to improve the standards of living for my children and my mother.”
It’s easy to miss amid so much brokenness, but the tender shoots of hope are here. The inexplicable smiles, the warm welcomes in humble homes, plates piled high with food that children’s empty stomachs will never eat.
When those who have nothing give everything, it puts things back into sync in a world consumed with consuming.
That means you can double your impact for women like Amou Luka Kuot, one of the history-making women well repair technicians in South Sudan!
Amou, a mother of two, knows the pain of struggling to find water for her family. Her drive to successfully repair wells goes beyond the desire to learn a new skill.
For her, it’s personal.
We can help Amou as she works hard to stop the needless suffering women face. She has the training. She has the heart. Let’s make sure she has the spare parts.
Today we are raising $15,000 to provide three months of spare parts to women like Amou. The first $5,000 is being matched!
I can’t think of a better way to celebrate World Water Day and Women’s History Month.
Thank you,
Carrie Ward, Executive Director, Water is Basic
Investing in women is smart.
Studies show that women reinvest up to 90 percent of their incomes back into their families. Investing in women and girls creates long-term social and economic benefits for all individuals, communities, and the world.
Even one more year in school makes a difference. A girl's income will increase by up to 25% for every year she stays in school.
Seven out of ten of the world's poorest 1,000,000,000 people are women. Clean water, and education, and turning them loose to solve problems; it's just plain smart.
Now, please read Reverend Batemanyi Léonard's water story reported by another exceptional woman, Lucky Grace Isingizwe. See what you have done now, you have given hope. Thank you.
I am Reverend Batemanyi Léonard, and this is my water story.
Before the rain catchment tanks got here, we used to go to the Gikeri forest to collect water. It took us five hours to get a single jerry can of water. The trip itself was two hours, one hour to go, and one hour to return. But when you reached the marsh in the forest, you had to dig a small hole and wait for it to be filled with water. Then, you drew the water from the spot with a cup and poured it into a jerry can.
It’s almost an entire day.
If you planned to go find water, you weren’t able to do anything else that day. And this led to a severe increase in poverty because someone who went to get water couldn’t go to the fields to do farm work. And the problem was that you were only able to use the water that one day. And you had to go back the next day.
Before the rain catchment tanks, life was really unpleasant, especially for young children. We, the adults, tried, and the little water we found we used for cooking. We used the water as parents. But the kids, the kids, were helpless. They couldn’t contain themselves. They were children. So wherever they went, they poured all the dirty water they found down their throats. The water went to their stomachs, and the kids ended up with worm diseases, with swollen bellies. So poverty and conditions plagued us because of our situation.
In addition to that, we had mothers and girls who went all the way to Gikeri to look for water just to be violated. When some came back, they didn’t say anything. But when others did, somehow it got out that they had been raped, and it destroyed their marriages. Their husbands would say things like, “You have slept with some men I don’t know. Get out! I don’t want you to infect me with diseases.”
It was a hopeless kind of life to live.
But then we heard that Water is Basic had gotten funding and that they would build us tanks—a solution to our problems. We were so happy. It’s not like before. It’s a lot better. Worm diseases are reducing in children. There used to be amebic dysentery. And there used to be fevers which were common in children. It turned out it was due to uncleanliness, which came from not having enough water.
Now the unpleasantness has really gone down, the poverty, the diseases, and the rape.
If I walked around one day and met the people who gave money to get these rain catchment tanks, it would be a fantastic opportunity to express my thanks. Because they really thought about us: they listened to our suffering and our needs. Someone who listens to your needs and answers them is a very esteemed friend whom you can never forget your entire life. You tell your children about this person. We are very thankful.
We are thankful to everyone who is involved in this project. In Kibumba and Buhumba, we are very well. We haven’t been able to sigh with relief yet, because even though we have water, other people in the region are still crying. We share the water until we have no more left to give. When it’s not raining, we only use the tank for two months. When the water is finished and the sunny season isn’t, we go back to the struggle of finding water.
In this previous sunny season (2021), most of us didn’t go very far to find water. The tanks helped us, and the sun wasn’t severe. It would really help getting tanks all around Kibumba and Buhumba. On this hill, we only have 2 tanks. If we could get 5 more tanks so that 7 would be used by the 200 families who live here, that would be a huge help. Thank you.
NOTE: 5 water tanks cost $10,000 and serve more than 1,000 people for more than 50 years.
One of the great joys of our work is to see donors make generous gifts for our work. Then a few weeks later, their corporation matches.
Many of these corporations use Benevity.
Rebecca Achol Madut is married with two children and is a twenty-three-year-old living example of why women are the key to long-term well maintenance. When you have two little kids at home, you wake every morning knowing water is key to their future and the future of the entire community.
Twenty-five years, I have worked in Africa, fifteen of those in South Sudan. NEVER have I been so impressed with a team of folks. You will meet some of them through our communications over the next few months.
Whoever said, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder," didn't spend half their life flying back and forth to Africa. Nor did they shelter in place for a year.
I find food, air conditioning, family, and Netflix binges are rather good at creating space, real space, between myself and others. Perhaps you know what I mean.
It will be a year and a half since I was last on the ground with our friends in South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since that time, South Sudan has barely established a power-sharing government; and floods, corruption, and plummeting oil prices mean 70% of the people struggle to find food to eat.
Do you need a little boost to start your day? Today's report should do it.
Imagine it's hot. Scorching. It's also the dry season. Your entire village of 400 people is dependent on a water source an hour's walk away.
Then two young people from your village show up offering to fix your well. One of them is a woman! Whoever heard of such a thing?
A long discussion ensues where it is agreed the village will pay this repair team $30 plus parts to fix the well. But first, they have prove they can fix it.
And then they fix the well!
One of the men in the village shared his feelings about all this craziness.
“My name is Run Wol Thiik. I am a father of four children. Our well was broken down in our village, and we suffered with our animals a lot. Now we are happy for the newly trained Joseph Kuot and Achol Madut, our community members. They will come when we contact them in the future. That is now our primary hope.”
Run Wol's village is Bakdeer in Gogrial East County, Warrap State (GPS N. 8°12’37.524 / E. 28°31’59.928). The reason you don't see roads on this map is that there aren't any.
The well committee for Bakdeer collects well fees for repair and maintenance. In Warrap State, where raising cattle and goats is the business, clean water is the difference between success and failure.
That's why we just ordered a new truck from Dubai and more spare parts from Uganda. The only thing that can hold this Women’s Well Repair Initiative up is money and supplies.
Please consider a gift now so Joseph and Achol can fulfill their dreams of meeting the most basic need in their communities, clean water. Click here to learn more.
Rebecca Achol Madut Muorwel
Age: 23 years
Village: Mayom, Gogrial East County
Education level: Senior 3 (11th Grade)
Married with 2 children
“I accepted to come to this training because I want to help women to have constant access to clean water since I know the struggles they experience every day personally, particularly when a water pump is broken.”
Joseph Kuot Thiik
Age:22 years
Village: Mading, Gogrial East County
Education Level: First Year University
“This training is matching my education of economics. Now I want to acquire business skills and also well repairs skills to help my community have access to clean water without disruption that always experience when water well breaks down.”
