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A community from 2017 called Mavume created a poultry farm using the clean water availability as a catalyst. They employ 5 workers from the community providing wages. They sell eggs within the community and generate profits to pay wages. Net profits go into the Committee Bank Account to finance maintenance of the well. Depending on the success of this initiative, they also created plans for something even bigger. 

 

After Mavume community generated sufficient profit after 2 years of running this poultry farm, they implemented  plans to build a rural health clinic in their community.  Before this, the nearest clinic was more than 20km away and there was no support for pregnant women. The Water Oversight Committee approached the District Government as a united group, all in their uniforms, and negotiated with them to supply a nurse and medicine for this clinic 3 days a week. The Government agreed to this proposal if Mavume Community financed and completed the construction of the clinic themselves, made sure it would always be overseen by the Committee — and ensured water was supplied to it. 

 

They promised the Government that there would be a selected group that consistently pumped water from the well and delivered it to the health clinic. 

 

 

This entire process was done on their own. They mobilized the community, gathered signatures, paid for their transport to the main town, proposed their case to the Government, and returned back to the community proud. 

 

Once we became aware of these great initiatives, we talked with the community and looked over the consistency of their internal sustainability protocols that we put in place. Over the past 4 years, they have collected contributions from the community every month, kept the sanitation center in the school in great condition, and had conducted their 2-week maintenance checks of the well religiously. They had replaced all necessary parts of the well at the recommended intervals and have demonstrated an amazing cohesion with the entire project. 

 

We agreed to upgrade their entire system to a solar powered pump and distribution system because of this. Water will now be able to be piped directly to the health center. This health center will also serve the neighboring 8 communities. 

 

This is the exact type of development we hope to achieve. It exemplifies the very goal of our work — where we don’t want to come in and claim to solve anything, but rather provide water and an organized platform to help them climb the development ladder themselves so that they may lift themselves out of poverty with dignity and self-reliance.