Bring clean water to 38 children

Dear donor,

With your support, we are building an electric bore-hole in Father’s House orphanage, Muyuka.

The work started on March 21, after different rounds of interviews with prospective contractors. We are saddened to say that the work has not been yet finished, because of numerous problems. The last one of them the Anglophone crisis that has brought violence to the area of Muyuka. After two months of gunshots and population movements, the orphanage finally decided to move out of the area two weeks ago, after flying bullets entered the children’s dorm.

Don’t be afraid, the children are safe, and we are going to finish the Borehole in the coming months when the situation becomes stable again. We are accountable to you and will keep reporting on this situation through our Orphans and Vulnerable Children program

We cannot blame it only on the political crisis, we have had numerous difficulties in this project and we want to be transparent with you.

Project Challenges

The project budget was found insufficient. This was because the first contractors gave a very low estimate. They did not finally carry out the job because our selection committee deemed them unprofessional, and we hired another technical partner.

To overcome this financial constraint:

• We financed this with 2 microprojects, one funded in November and one funded in January
• The orphanage also committed to increasing their contribution to the project. The orphanage is paying for 1,100,000 Million or roughly 2000$ by itself. This is done in a delayed payment.
• The consultant agreed to split the payment throughout a few months.
• We discussed over the budget and agreed over the minimum functional work: Appropriate drilling to access clean water and a pump that is functional and gives clean water.
• We will make another project for the finishing: The tank and the system that carries water to the tank, so they can store water. This is very important because the pumping system is electrical and electricity cuts are still frequent in Muyuka.

Later on, when the consultant began work, we had other challenges:

• The first drilling was not successful. The soil of Mile40, Muyuka has a different composition than those in the nearby communities, and it caught the technician unaware. It required an extra drilling in a new position.

• By the time the drilling was finished the political situation had gone worse. Muyuka is located between the two major population centres of the South-West Region, and the separatist group has focused efforts here, trying to get to the capital, Buea. Workers were refusing to go to Muyuka. They were afraid of being attacked or extorted by the military or the rebels. So the work could not be completed.

• Lastly, as said, the orphanage itself decided to relocate to the founder’s house for a while, and we are halting this operation in the orphanage while the situation calms down.

We have learned a lot from our mistakes and want to apologize for failing you and the rest of the donors. Be assured, Father’s House Orphanage will have water. Our organization keeps (and now even increases) our operations in this and other conflict zones and we will find a way to finish the work.

We keep in regular touch with the orphanage and we could recently support them with a business grant for another project.

We want you to hear from the people you are helping, that even with the project difficulties, are already so grateful to you.

“We have been carrying water on our heads, one of us even fell some weeks back” (One of the blind children)

“What we have suffered this dry season cannot be explained, you don’t know how much good you are doing for us” Mom Commy, Orphanage mother.

“The whole community praises you, we all need this water, you have helped many of us, we have gone through a lot.” One of the neighbours

Thank you for helping them and for believing in us, we will continue reporting on this project here, in our main program page, please add it to "project favourites" if you want to receive e-mails with updates. 

If you want to know more about the political crisis in the area and what we are doing to mitigate it, you can also check this other project.

Thank you very much, and our deepest apologies for this failure.

Links:

• our website
• Our newsletter
• our facebook page