Solar-Powered Well for a Health Clinic in Niger

The water system for the health care facility that you helped make possible has been drilled in Kelloum Bawa, the village in which the clinic is located. Please see the attached photos from the day the well was drilled! The work to complete the mechanized system continues and is expected to be completed by the end of March. Once complete, this system will be composed of water points, or taps, within the village and the clinic itself. The importance of these taps cannot be overstated. Once they are up and running, the people of Kelloum Bawa and the patients at the health care facility will be able to access safe, clean water instantly, no walking or pumping required. They will simply turn on a tap, much like we do.

We are also thrilled to report that in addition to the solar water system for the health care facility, we also funded 51 handpump wells in 2020. These wells will provide safe water for roughly 51,000 people at a time when access to clean water is more important than ever before due to Covid-19.

We are thrilled to be able to tell you that thanks to your generous support and that of hundreds of other donors, we have fully funded our second solar-powered water system for a health clinic in Niger. This water system will have multiple water points (taps) that will serve both the clinic and the people of Kelloum Bawa, the village in which the clinic is located. 

Fortunately, COVID cases have continued to remain relatively low in Niger but the lack of clean water in communities without a safe water well makes these villages extremely vulnerable. Hand washing is a key intervention, and it takes clean water to do that. This is obviously even more critical in a healthcare setting. We are so honored that GlobalGiving recognized the critical nature of our work with their gift of a $25,000 grant to us from the Coronavirus Relief Fund. In this time when we are all obsessively washing out hands to slow the spread of COVID-19, it is clearer than ever that access to safe water is a fundamental human right.

Attached is a map indicating where our newest solar water system will be located.

Links:

• Clinic Campaign

Since our last update, we have received a few more photos and the attached report on the water system that was installed at Kawaye Health Center. The clinic's patients and health care providers as well as the people living in the village of Kawaye are all continuing to benefit from the safe water that flows effortlessly from taps inside and outside of the clinic.

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, easy access to safe water is more important than ever. The opening of this mechanized water system couldn't not have come at a better time. 

We are only $10,000 away from funding a second health clinic water system, which will be installed at a health center in Kelloum Bawa, a village in the Maradi region of Niger. Once we have completed funding, we will be able to begin work on another transformative clinic water system.

• Kawaye_Health_Center.pdf (PDF)
  

Since we last updated you, construction on the health clinic water system that you helped to fund has been completed! The clinic is located in a community called Kawaye , which is in the Maradi region of Niger. Prior to the drilling of this borehole well and installation of the mechanized, solar-powered system, people in Kawaye  did not have any access to safe water, relying on shallow open wells that were frequently contaminated.

Now, not only does the village have a safe water well right in their community, but the clinic has running water! That means that laboring mothers don't have to bring their own water to their deliveries. It means that health care professionals can wash their hands and instruments between patients. It means that giving birth in Kawaye is now a joyful experience, not a life-threatening one.

Unfortunately, in light of recent security issues in the region, we canceled our February trip to Niger out of an abundance of caution. Sadly, that means that we don't yet have photographs or stories from beneficiaries for you, but we will have more to share in the next report!

As always, thank you for your compassion in action.

Warmly,

Kate

Links:

• https://wellsbringhope.org/healthclinic/

Thanks to the incredible support of our donors and the GlobalGiving community, we have successfully raised the $50,000 necessary to fund a solar-powered water system for a health clinic in rural Niger, the poorest country in the world according to the 2019 UN Development Report.

Construction of the system began in October and is expected to be competed in February, 2020. The healthcare facility receiving the water system is located in the Chadakori commune in the Maradi region of Niger. We are sending a team to Niger in February and plan to see the new system in action and capture some photos and video to share with you!