The Women’s Well Repair Initiative

Women are solving the water crisis in South Sudan. You can help.

Here’s a little secret about water: water wells break. The cool part is, it doesn’t take a lot to fix them. Announcing the Women’s Well Repair Initiative. 

We are giving women, the primary water gatherers in Africa, the resources they need to repair wells themselves. We start with successful women entrepreneurs, add in-depth business training, well-repair expertise, and training in water well committee development. Our initial 20 women could restore 1,000 wells per year. 

The recruitment, transport, training (two one month intensives), oversight, and deployment of each new woman-led repair business, require an investment of $2,700 per business leader. That’s where you come in.

WHY WE THINK THIS IS SMART

WOMEN MAKE THINGS HAPPEN – Women care about water. They want their kids to be healthy and their daughters to be in school. They own the responsibility of the wells in their community, and this would only broaden that responsibility.

FROM CHARITY TO EQUITY – Something as important as water should not rely on organizations that can potentially lose funding or pack up their bags. With the tools they need to repair wells, trained women can keep repairing wells long after organizations have moved on.

IT’S GOOD FOR THE LOCAL ECONOMY – A woman with well-repair expertise is a small business. There are thousands of wells in disrepair in South Sudan alone, so there’s more than enough demand. Every repair puts money into the hands of a woman-owned small business, which boosts the local economy.

IT’S SCALABLE – Dozens of woman-led repair teams repairing wells, it’s not just inspiring, it’s smart. With this model, we could repair every well in South Sudan.

IT’S REPEATABLE - Like all machines, wells will break. The more they are used, the more they will break. These local businesses will be there, year after year, to meet the need. Women, local, scalable, repeatable - now that is smart.

The law of supply and demand should equalize any marketplace, including the water well repair business.

When local supply meets local demand, efficiencies transform the market, and thousands of villagers return to healthy living and hopeful futures. Become an economic stimulus, invest now.