Will you join us for a cup of African Tea? You have plenty of water, right?

Wouldn't that be a silly question to ask in our country?! Of course we have water. Plenty of it. Clean water. Right in our home. Only if we lived in a drought-affected region would we be required to reduce our water consumption.

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Unfortunately, the children we serve who attend New Hope have a very different experience. The original borehole that was dug in 2008 (for about 200 students) is no longer meeting the needs of the students. The manual pumping of water for over 900 students twice a day has become exceedingly time-consuming and disruptive to the daily operations. Moreover, the dated infrastructure of the borehole system requires continuous servicing.

Our team just learned that primary grade children rise at 4:00 a.m. to stand in line at the bore hole. One at a time they pump water to fill their bucket. Can you imagine? They then carry the bucket back to their dormitory to use it for daily routines like brushing their teeth, bathing, and rinsing utensils, along with weekend chores like washing their clothes. There is only one bore hole for 900 children. They do also have two large
holding tanks that collect rain water. 

The distance between various points of interest on the premises has expanded, straining the system's capacity to meet demands. The school now encompasses a kindergarten and high school, with separate wings for girls and boys, making a single distribution point more complex.