Hello friends and family; Merry Christmas! The year is almost over, and we are very excited to partner again with The Water Project in their work to provide clean drinking water to impoverished African communities. They have identified almost 700 wells in need of repair in and around Kenya, and have developed a simple solution in conjunction with researchers from Portland State, MIT and other schools. By using modern technology, they will begin active monitoring of these wells until such time as the community using them can prove they are able to take over their maintenance. It is not common for non-profit water groups to talk about their problems, much less deal with them head on. I commend the leaders and staff of the Water Project for this heads-up, transparent approach to the real conditions on the ground in this area. Your donation will get water flowing again for the thousands of humans living without this basic need, often because an inexpensive part at the bottom of the well needs to be replaced.

Please read below for more information, and consider contributing to this worthy cause in this giving season. Your dollar counts twice! Every dollar raised up to $7,500 will be matched! Let's get to $15,000.00!

Thank you all, you are making a difference!!! Spread the word!

THE WATER PROMISE

Broken pumps are broken promises.

Every good thing made possible by access to safe water depends on it being available every day - year after year. Sadly though, the promise of safe water has been broken many times in the past. Faulty and abandoned pumps are almost expected in places like Kenya.

That must change.

The Water Project is taking a bold step toward provably reliable water. When a pump breaks down, we want it fixed in days, not months - regardless of whether a community is resigned to the latest failure.

For the next 42 wells in Kenya, they're applying new technology, training maintenance teams, and setting aside five years of repair funding to make it happen!

The Tech Inside

Simple and Sophisticated

With help from Portland State University's SWEETLab, our next 42 wells are being equipped with SWEETSense Technology: a GPS chip, accelerometer, pressure transducer, and SIM card to upload data to the internet via cell network. With it, you can check on the well you funded from your smartphone before you go to bed, or in line at the grocery store. But more importantly, when something goes wrong, a technician is alerted automatically by text message to get water flowing again. We're all in this together - you, The Water Project, our partners, and the communities we serve together.

The Dashboard

Your Well on This Screen

Once installed, there will be a link to see the project dashboard any time. Data will be uploaded every day so you can track how long a well was used the day before, how many gallons were pumped from it, and if it had any down time. We'll use the data to ensure quicker maintenance and more reliable water service. For the next five years, you'll get to check on the well and stand with us as we serve our neighbors in Kenya through the challenges and triumphs to come!

100% Transparency. 100% Accountability. We'll show everyone how it's all working.