Over the two years I’ve been working at One, I’ve always been a huge advocate for the The One Foundation and the work they do to help completely transform the lives of those most in need of clean water. I find myself talking about what we’ve achieved on a daily basis and couldn’t be more proud of the organisation I work for.
I’m certain this became even more apparent after returning from visiting our projects in Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda at the start of the year. Seeing the immense impact The One Foundation’s water projects have on people in some of the world’s poorest communities gives me a real sense of purpose to carry on doing what we do every day.
It’s the individuals who stick in my mind though, from Jeannette, a student I met at Nyarurama Primary School in Rwanda who can now go to school every day instead of walking miles to collect water, to Afia, a water seller in Ghana who now provides clean water to over 8,500 members of her community.
That’s why I get excited about hearing new case studies from our projects, and why I’d like to share Grace’s story about life in Muhama village, Malawi, since we installed a new borehole five months ago:
Name: Grace Namakhwa
Age: 37
Village: Muhuma village, Eastern Outgrowers, Malawi
Children: Catherine (17), Kenneth (10), Junior (5)
“We used to wake up every day at 4am to try to collect water because the whole village was sharing the same water point. And if we got there too late, there would be nothing left but a small pool of dirty water.
There were also regular outbreaks of diseases and diarrhoea and the children were so tired and weak that they would fall asleep in class.
Now we have water in our homes all the time. The children are getting As and Bs at school because they have enough time to rest and we spend the extra hours we have working in our gardens, using the water to irrigate our vegetables.
We also formed a borehole committee and have already collected MK45,000 (approx. £45) from the community to buy spare parts so that whenever it breaks down we can maintain it ourselves.
We really want to thank the donors and let them know that we will take good care of this borehole.”
Find out how you have helped to change over 500,000 lives like Grace’s in Malawi.