Giving Update: Mabendo Community Well

The lives of community members in Mabendo have improved significantly over the past year, particularly in the area of hygiene and sanitation. This is due to the availability of safe water throughout the year thanks to their rehabilitated well.

“Since the completion of this project here, we have seen great changes in this community. We no longer go to fetch water in the swamp. The average time spent to fetch water has also fallen dramatically," said Foday Kamara.

"We want to thank God and your organization for helping us with this well. It has eliminated most of the ills related to the past.”

Walking through the community, our field officers observed community members putting the lessons from the hygiene and sanitation trainings that our staff conducted last year into action. The latrines are clean and the handwashing stations are up and running in this community. Above all, and according to the interviews, the community members have stopped going to the swamp to fetch water and they are living a happier and healthier life.

“My life has changed since the completion of this project. Having this water project completed in our community is a blessing because some years back we used to go down [to] the swamps looking for drinking water which was not pure for our health. Also, I used to arrive late for school every day because I had to cover a long distance to the swamp in the morning. Going down [to] the swamp for water to take my bath before covering another distance again to school in Kasongha is painful," said Mohamed Turay, an 18-year-old student.

"However, having this well has solved that problem greatly. This has made us happy as children living in this community because we are no longer late for school.”

These changes came about as a result of the successful water project and the efforts that our staff have made to see that this well remains useful and functional in this community. The availability of water is tremendously helping people to adhere to the hygiene and sanitation lessons our staff thought them.