MWOGO VILLAGE, RWANDA
IN PROGRESS
STATUS
PEOPLE IN SERVICE AREA
DOLLARS FUNDED
FUNDED FEBRUARY 15, 2023
A deep well is urgently needed to serve a Christian school and the surrounding community in the village of Mwogo, Rwanda.
The current school population is 215 students, 20 staff. (The student population will rise to 500.) Plus the local community.
The surrounding community is sprawling. The number of people in the most local service area: 1000 to be served.
Mwogo School Campus
Water storage tank. Currently, they must truck the water in.
Free standing hand-washing stands
A borehole is most urgently needed at the school, but it could not be done previously, because they did not own the school. Now they own the property.
Currently, the school must purchase water. It lasts for 4 days (30 cu liters) and costs $30. They have to buy it from a water truck, (at $150 per month, minimum) and store it in a tank.
This quantity really isn’t sufficient for their needs either, such as all floors are not mopped, etc.
The town is Mwogo. The homes are mud houses, and the families who live here are a marginalized, vulnerable people group with a high vulnerable children rate.
This is part of the selection process for where schools become established, to serve those in the greatest need.
These are few local water sources for the people.
1. There is an open pipe located about a mile from the from the village. This pipe runs under the road, allowing water to move under the road and cars not to drive through water. The water is flowing downhill. The people use funnels to capture this polluted water into their yellow jerry cans.
2. There is a swampy area about 2 km from the village. People collect water here for drinking, cooking, laundry, and bathing.
But there is no local clean water source. The people suffer from worms, hookworms, typhoid, cholera, diarrhea, & skin problems due to lack of access to clean water. What a blessing it will be to bring clean water to the school, so the kids can have abundant clean water, to support their health, and to do well in and out of school!
Water containers
Pipe water source
A child drinks water caught from the pipe
Water storage containers
Woman transferring water to the containers
As a part of [Heaven’s Family’s] process, we require all of our ministry partners to agree to prepare for and manage any future maintenance on the well. The receiving partner ministry may take on the responsibility and/or they may create a water commission, have community meetings, and have the community agree to contribute in some way according to ability.
Future maintenance meetings with the benefiting community are held. It is very important that the local people know that this is ‘their’ well. When they know they have ownership, they will work to take care of it as best they can. The whole community agrees how best to manage the water asset. Often times very small fees are charged for the future management of the well, but the process varies from place to place. Here with this particular project, the school will direct the management. The plan is to have a small, fractional fee (not yet decided) as approved by the leadership so the community may contribute to future well maintenance. We work to educate partners to understand self-sufficiency better.
This will be a complex project, costing a total of $18,500. The deep borehole, electric pump and storage tank will be funded by ILW’s $15,000 donation, and Heaven’s Family will provide $3,500 from general funds. On top of that joint effort, a community kiosk will be built, to more efficiently serve water to the community by providing a separate access point from the school grounds. Heaven’s Family will raise an addiontal $10,000 to fund that kiosk.
The well will provide clean water to drink, improve health and will benefit the school, outreach programs done from the school such as Bible study outreach, food-related sustainability projects at the school to help feed the students, and also the community will benefit with clean water to drink vs. the contaminated water sources they must all currently use. The well will end the hour of time it takes simply to fetch water and they will have access to water year round.
A well will be transformational for the community and the people will see the love of Jesus.
Testimonies of the Challenges of Water in Mwogo
A story of Teresie:
She is called Nyirahabimana Teresie. She lives in Gatwe village and Bitaba cell. She is a mother of 5 children. Odile Munezero is a sponsored student in Cindi’s Hope Mwogo and she is among those 5 children.
To get water, they walk 2 kilometers to and from. It is very dirty water but they cook with it, they wash clothes with it, and they even drink it. In summer sometimes they even lack it completely when the swamps dry up.
This family and the population in this village undergo many problems and challenges like diarrhea, cholera, typhoid fever and hookworm. They also walk a long distance looking for water, and their children often fall sick.
Here is their source of water
Godereva Mukambaha
She is 62 years old. She lives in Gatoki village, Bitaba cell and Mwogo sector. She has 3 children. She gets water from the valley and she fetches it for herself at a distance of 1 hour from home to the swamp. She uses 2 hours of time to go back and forth for water one time.
This is the water she bathes with, cooks, wash and drinks. To get this water she walks a distance and a distance, most of the time she suffers with diarrhea, and typhoid fever of which she thinks is caused by this water she drinks.
Here is their storage of water
Mwogo classroom
The Mwogo school is a Christian school. The children learn regular subjects, and learn about the Lord and the Bible. Besides educating the kids they do several types of outreaches to the local community. They have weekly Bible studies, outreaches for men, women, and youth. Outreach to serve the elderly. Also, programs at holidays where the people can come and gather and hear the Gospel.
Students line up for photos
Both boys and girls have very short haircuts
All projects are made possible by World Changers.