Major Water Update
After a serious incident of misuse in October 2023, the well's pump sustained damage, rendering it non-operational. This compelled the girls to revert to the arduous task of walking to the village, fetching water in buckets, and trekking back to the school, repeating this process 2-3 times daily.
Upon learning of the pump's plight in early 2024, the Gustafsons wasted no time in generously donating once again to facilitate repairs and restore functionality.
Immediately upon my return to Tanzania, I reached out to AG Energies in Dar es Salaam to dispatch a technician to the school and restore the water system to optimal working condition.
Water Well Construction Project
One of the biggest challenges we have been facing at Agape Knowledge Open School is access to fresh water. Since arriving in 2019 at AKOS in Chibe, Tanzania, the students relied on rainwater collection in buckets and sporadic supply from the city lines which were lucky to be working 30% of the time. Many times, we have had to fill containers in Shinyanga and deliver them to the students to keep them going.
In 2021 we were blessed with a donation of a deep water well out in our fields, but we faced problems like the solar pump being badly underpowered by 50%; the students would have to travel 300 meters with buckets constantly throughout the day for laundry, cooking, washing, and using the bathroom.
There is a very huge demand for providing access to the school from the well and providing the girls with clean fresh water they need in their daily lives.
We have developed a plan to pipe the water to the school and disperse access to the Lavatory, Kitchen, and Dormitory and store it for continued use during the day and night using Poly tanks elevated at each location.
With a truly amazing donation from the Gustafson family in Calgary, we have enough funding to get the water to the school from the well and properly power the pump with more solar. Further donations from the McKinnon and Harvey families, we were able to continue moving water to the lavatories and the kitchen.
