We have all seen photos of women and children carrying containers of water on their head but how often do we stop to consider a basic fact about the mechanics involved?

Water is HEAVY

1 gallon of water = 8 lbs. (actually 8.33 lbs)

Many women and children in Africa carry up to 5 gallons of water

Daily

On their heads

For miles

Twice or more a day

Women and children who carry heavy containers of water daily suffer from neck and back pain and are prone to degenerative skeletal disorders.

Fill a container with water and see how far you can carry it - not on your head - just carry it at all.

It's heavy and it's hard.

 

http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/public/Feb05.pdf

http://www.ehjournal.net/content/9/1/52

Dream Sailor (who just happens to be my niece) wrote this wonderful reflection/call to action.

Great article on NYTimes Fixes blog on the importance of sustainability for water projects.

Sustainability has been another of my big take away lessons from my work with AWF and our partner Africare.

Every project proposed and implemented by Africare is designed to be sustainable. Community involvement begins before sites are even selected. All proposals include the formation of local committees for well maintenance, water management and community health. Local volunteers and contractors are employed in construction. Locally obtained materials for pump construction are used whenever possible so that if a pump breaks down, parts are available.

We often have donors ask us 'How much does it cost to build a well?" and while it would be nice to reply with a straightforward  price tag of x number of dollars, it's impossible because a project involves so much more than just 'building a well". However, a few minutes spent explaining the concept of sustainability and the need for a comprehensive project is usually all it takes for donors to realize how much more effective their contributions can be.

Nine years ago, I joined a group of committed people who were forming the African Well Fund because they believed as did I that clean water is every person's basic human right.

I've learned a lot in the last nine years, but one of the most important things I have learned in the importance of clean water AND sanitation. Both are key to saving lives - one without the other makes no sense at all. That's why most of the projects we fund work to improve sanitation as well as access to clean water.

Tomorrow is World Toilet Day. World Toilet Day was created by the World Toilet Organization in 2001 to raise global awareness of the struggle 2.6 billion face every day without access to proper, clean sanitation.

There are lots of imaginative campaigns designed to raise awareness about this decidedly unglamorous topic. One of which is Matt Damon's  Talk Sh*t for Global Sanitation Awareness

All the sites listed above have suggestions for 'celebrating' World Toilet Day.

 If you would like to know more about the improved sanitation component of our projects, just take a look at one of our reports on our project page.

I'm just back from Africare's annual Bishop John T. Walker dinner in Washington D.C.

It's such a great energizing event that I have been lucky to be able to attend for the last 9 years!

Last year was particularly exciting as Africare President Darius Mans announced our new partnership with Angelique Kidjo's Batonga Foundation to provide water and sanitation at schools in Benin. You can view his announcement here.

This year we found out that the project which was funded in part by this year's Bono birthday well campaign has broken ground and is underway. We are very excited and will keep you all posted with news as the project progresses.

We'll also be posting more reports from this year's dinner, updates on other projects in progress and new proposals to fund.

Speaking of Batonga, they are currently competing in the Girl Effect challenge and have the chance to be featured on GlobalGiving's Girl Effect fundraising page for one year. Batonga works to help keep girls in school.  When girls are educated and empowered, the effect is transformative. They are more likely to marry later, have fewer children, protect themselves against disease, generate more income, and help to boost the economy of their community.

Please take a moment and check out their  challenge page today!

I ordered three pairs of shoes yesterday. They're all very cute and I can't wait until they arrive at my house.

What do my new shoes have to do with clean water? Quite a lot, actually, because my shoe purchase is helping AWF fund the construction of clean water and sanitation projects in sub-Saharan Africa. I made the purchase through GoodShop, a searchable listing of thousands of online retailers who will donate a portion of your purchase (up to 8 percent, depending on the retailer) to the charity of your choice.

Five percent of the purchase price of my shoes was donated to AWF just because I clicked on the retailer's link on GoodShop. I also found a coupon for 10 percent off my order on GoodShop.

I was going to buy shoes anyway, so using GoodShop to get a good deal and earn money for AWF made sense to me. And it's not just shoes; I've used GoodShop when buying books, DVDs, clothes and flowers.

GoodShop is a product of GoodSearch, a search engine that donates 1 cent per web search to the charity of your choice. AWF has been listed with GoodSearch since December 2005, earning more than $1,300 in that time from its supporters' web searches and online purchases.

If you'd like your web searches or purchases to benefit AWF projects, click here and let the site know you're supporting African Well Fund (Schenectady, NY).

Many thanks to Chris #2 from Anti-Flag for the shout-out in his interview in The Aquarian Weekly

As Chris says, the band have been long-time supporters of the African Well Fund, donating proceeds from a  guitar giveaway , ticket sales and items for our Got Water? auctions.

They have also helped raise awareness about the need for clean water in Africa by distributing African Well Fund info at their shows.

They believe as we do that it is possible to personally effect positive change in the world both locally and globally.

That's the take home message from the recent International Water Forum at the United Nations according to the Columbia Water Center who participated in the event.

In an effort to stimulate new dialogue about clean water, sanitation, wells, and Africa we have decided to bring back our blog!  Our goal is to post at least once a week (hopefully more) any articles, ideas, and information that we come across as we go about our daily business. We hope that this blog will create some meaningful discussions about the causes we at the African Well Fund believe in so deeply.

So to kick off our re-entry into the blogsphere I am sharing with you our latest entry in our "Why You Give" series.  We hope that you are as inspired by Ken as we are.

As African Well Fund nears the $1 million fundraising mark, we've asked supporters to share their stories of why they give. In this installment, Ken Braley, founder of Punk For Peace, shares his reasons why. How did you first learn about the African Well Fund? I first learned about the African Well Fund at an Anti-Flag show a few years ago. Anti-Flag brought the African Well Fund on tour with them. I talked to people there from AWF and Anti-Flag about how good it was to hear a positive message and have a way to help people at a show. Why did you want to support AWF? There are several reasons why I support AWF. The most-important reason is because I believe that the work they do is very important, life-changing work. I was also happy to find out that AWF was founded by music fans. This fit perfectly with my company, Punk For Peace, which, among other things, tries to help music fans find ways they can make positive changes in their communities and the world. What are some specific things you've done to support AWF's mission to fund clean water and sanitation projects in sub-Saharan Africa? The African Well Fund is one of 11 nonprofit organizations that Punk For Peace has donated money to so far. Ten percent of all profits [from] the company are donated to nonprofits with similar goals. Besides donating, I have also used the Punk For Peace Facebook page to let fans know about the great work that AWF is doing and how they can get involved. Why do you continue to support AWF? I continue to follow the work of the African Well Fund and plan to continue to support it. Clean drinking water is probably the most basic human need that every single person on this planet should have available to them. Ken Braley is the founder of Punk for Peace, which promotes and sells music while providing support to nonprofit organizations, including African Well Fund. If you'd like to tell African Well Fund why you give, please e-mail info@africanwellfund.org. To make a donation to support future African Well Fund projects, please click here.

AWF Board Member Angela Martens with villagers from Mushasha in Ntungamo, Uganda and the hand pump well that Africare installed with funds from AWF.

This is our last day in Ntungamo and already my heart is aching to return.

The Africare staff here have become our friends and it has been so amazing to see how hard they are working to turn the funds raised by AWF into tangible change in people's lives.

Today we visited a village called Mushashsa and there was much singing and dancing and thanksgiving. Everywhere we go we find such joy and spirit in the people and it fills me with so much emotion to see how much they are thankful for what they do have which by our western standards is not much at all but I think the thing that strikes me the most is their sense of community with each other and how time and time again we have been told of a village which recieved a well from AWF / Africare and then suddenly they are sharing it with the next village or parish. There is a spirit in these people that I am coming to envy. There is a beauty in these people that I've not experienced before.

Our filmmaker in tow, Steve, has been working very hard these past few days and says he has over 13 hours of footage to edit. I can assure you that we here at AWF are very anxious to share the footage and photographs with you as soon as we can. I'm sure we'll put something on the website quite soon. We also plan to update this blog with pictures once we can get back to faster internet connections so keep checking back.

Speaking of working hard, Angela and I were once again asked to carry water cans from a well to a home and it was quite a difficult task. I myself carried 10 gallons of water in two cans and I had to stop a few times as it was painful for my hands. I was then informed that this would be the amount of water that an adult women might carry 2 or 3 times a day and possibly while carry a child in a sash on her back. I'm sure I heard more than a few giggles from the folks who were watching me.

I feel like I could go on and on for many more paragraphs but I'll close by saying that we have fallen in love with this place and with these people and I cannot thank each of you enough who have made this work possible enough.

The work that AWF and Africare do here is real and it is changing lives!

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

So goodbye to Paul, Dennis, Frances and Jacob in Ntungamo. Goodbye to Anthony, Shanna & Dr. Kahiu in Kampala (and thanks for the cake!)

And goodbye beautiful Uganda!

Peace,

rob