Working together, sharing responsibility

Southern Sudan is not as well-known as Sudan’s Darfur region but its people have much in common with their fellow Sudanese in that region; a harsh desert climate, a war-ravaged environment, and lack of safe, drinkable water. Both are part of Africa’s largest country, which is one of the world’s poorest.

As of May 2009, Water for Sudan has  drilled 43 borehole wells, bringing clean, safe water to tens of thousands of people in Southern Sudan’s remote villages. A single well may serve several thousand people.

People in the villages where Water for Sudan operates become partners in the process of making safe, drinkable water available there.

Villagers provide free, “sweat equity” labor, from unloading trucks and carrying supplies to lugging heavy bags of rocks then pounding them into needed gravel.

Village elders help determine a well’s location and appoint one of their people to maintain the completed well and its pump. The Water for Sudan team trains that well manager and provides spare parts.

The result is a village renewed by its own efforts with increased confidence that its people can continue to transform their own lives.