Karambi Village now has a water pump and water storage tank!

Karambi Village, Rwanda now has a storage tank and water pump so everyone can access clean water. The water tank connects to a pipeline that frequently runs dry. With the tank they can store water for the families there throughout the dry spells. The community members voluntarily helped construct the project and provide $19 for a tap that measures the quantity of water released. Charges can be made per collection that will go to the company supplying the water. A few kilometers away, on the other side of the hill, a water pump dug by Karambi village members and installed and donated by Living Water was completed on Wednesday. A huge thank you goes to Living Water for providing the materials and installation! The pump is on land donated by Fred, our facilitator for the project. It will be used by families who currently collect water from a valley, which was clean until a few years ago when development started taking place and has since become quite polluted and not safe to drink. Many people don’t even boil their water; leaving their families in great danger of parasites and disease. Both the water tank and pump will have clean water, good for humans and agriculture and it wont impose such a hassle to collect now that it is closer and reliable to gather.

The village and its leaders thank Spark for supporting the project and noted that it is their first time an NGO or donor has been there. They are proud of the project and held a meeting on Friday to discuss security of the project and fund collection for the upkeep of it.

In the same village a few men received goats as part of a nanogrant. Their goats are all pregnant! The individuals who helped lead the MicroGrant project within the village and have shown their dedication to its success are now forming a group to try and gain support to start economic activity to bring them out of poverty. They have written a proposal to have a meeting with us about how to do this and inquired about where to find start up money. It is this kind of proactive energy that is wonderful to see after each project is complete. Many members see the MicroGrant project as a time to show off their capabilities and hard work which seems to be something good to support! Hopefully as we develop as an organization we will be better positioned to connect our villages to other NGOs, banks and opportunities.