VILLAGERS DESIRE GROWTH AND FUTURE FOR THEIR CHILDREN
In 2009, the Tanzanian village called Majengo received their deep-capped water well.
Two years later, GAiN went back to the village to assess the impact. Within moments, the team noticed that there was a new building.
Villagers shared that the well not only gave them fresh, disease-free water, but it gave them the opportunity to create a new future for their community. They caught a vision that Majengo could grow and develop, whereby impacting the lives of their children.
As a result, the borehole committee collected a small fee from each villager for the use of water. Together with another village, they used some of the surplus in their bank account to help with the construction of a local primary school.
Dennis Fierbach, Director of Water Strategies, comments: “This building project was spear-headed entirely by the locals themselves. It’s encouraging to see that the well played a part in revitalizing Majengo’s development.”
When the well was first provided, GAiN conducted both well-maintenance training and hygiene and sanitation training with Majengo.
Villagers also shared that the village chairman really embraced this training, enforcing sound hygiene practices throughout the entire village. In fact, with a concern of cross-contamination, he charged a penalty to each villager that went back to get bad water from the hand-dug wells.
He also implemented new practices such as limiting the number of people that stood on the concrete pad as well as designating one person to do the pumping in order to minimize the wear and tear of the platform.
“This is a prime example of how the provision of a water well can have a tremendous impact on the community’s economy and affect the education of children,” says Fierbach.
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