The wait is finally over!

Smileys!!!!!

This morning I finally received the email from Charity Water, the email I've been looking forward to for almost two years! The complete project report including the GPS coordinates of the wells (yes, plural!!), showing where all the money went - the report I've been harassing them for for the last 6 months!

So, today was a good day for me, but probably much better for those who have been getting access to the clean water :)

And seeing these photos of the hand dugged well in Enda Agam Village (somewhere in Ethiopia!) is... a bit surreal. It feels like a million years since I was staying up late after work baking for the cause and harassing people around me to get involved. I was so excited to check it out on Google Earth and I can't imagine where they would've gone to for water before the wells were implemented!

Check it out for yourself with these coordinates on Google Earth, you'll know what I mean...
GPS: 14.15111111, 38.65111111

Look!! a plaque as they promised with Sugar For Water engraved!!!!!! (note: there's going to be extensive use of exclamations in this post, just because!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

The field report says:

Thanks to you, this village now has access to clean and safe drinking water. They've also been trained by our local partners on safe hygiene practices and basic maintenance of their water project. Each family using the new water source contributed between $0.03 and $0.06 toward their project's construction; that's a small fee, but one that helps instill a sense of personal ownership for the project. Each family will continue to pay between $0.03 and $0.06 per month to use the water; the community will save this money for any necessary maintenance or repairs. 

The people here, especially women and children, used to walk up to two hours to collect water for their families. Even then, each family member had to make do with just five liters of water per day for drinking, bathing, cooking and everything else. The water wasn't safe to drink and often made people sick. Thanks to your help, people here are walking significantly less every day to collect water. On average, they're less than 15 minutes from their water project, which means each family now can use up to 15 liters per person per day! Most importantly, the water they bring home each day is safe enough to drink. 

Note: We wanted to show you that this community is serious about keeping their project safe, clean and functioning for years to come. They built a fence and a door on their own initiative, to prevent animals from contaminating the area and to show ownership of their new water source.

So now the women and children spend less time sourcing water, instead more time can be spent on education, family duties and working to supplement income!!!!!!!!! I think this is the best way to help a community sustain itself!!!!!! empowering the people by giving them ownership and knowledge.

They even built a fence around it as a community to prevent animals from contaminating their clean water source, I think that's pretty neat! And the local partners / field workers educated the village people on hygiene and maintenance both very important for the sustainability of this project. Hopefully, the well will continue to provide clean water for 20+ years to come.

Well #1, fully funded by Sugar For Water.  Located in Enda Agam Village, Ethiopia

The dates on these photos are more than 10 months old, so it seems that the well has been supplying clean water for a while now, but the field report has been delayed...

To be honest, I have been losing patience the last few months having had to constantly write to Charity Water asking about the progress of the well, emails going back and forth, getting the same replies about field work being postponed etc etc.... I even started doubting whether anything was getting done at all! and only yesterday I was googling the net, but failed to find anything negative about the organization. So I half gave up, but then they surprised me with an email today, proof of what they've been doing with the money from all the people who supported this campaign. Sorry for ever doubting!

The above hand dugged well costed $4,440 to complete and the remaining $582 went towards another well (below), together with 10 other campaigns to build a shallow bore hole dugged well located in Sakeyh Village also in Ethiopia. Together, these two wells will serve around 600 people clean water for 20+ years!! That's pretty sweet!!!!!!

Well #2 located in Sakeyh Village, Ethiopia

Kids with cool haircuts enjoying the clean water!!

To Conclude...

Thank you old friends, new friends, family, ex-colleagues, directors at Conrad & Gargett Architecture and the many strangers for your support and patience during those crazy three months in 2010 and most of all, thank you Charity Water and your local partner (A Glimmer of Hope) for doing what you do.

Keep on giving.

xx
Amy

PS. this may be the last post on this blog, or not, perhaps I will do it again and continue what I've started. For the time being, good bye.

Links

Sugar For Water Campaign Page
Well #1 in Enda Agam Village
Well #2 in Sakeyh Village

It's been a while...

random pic of me in mexico :P

I had to retrieve the password to log-in here... it's definitely been a while since this place got abandoned as life just kept happening and I moved on. It's been about 17.5 month since the end of my charity:water campaign and a lot of you guys have been asking me about where the money really went!

If you know me in person, you'd know since this whole charity stint, I have quit my day job, went to pastry school, and started my backpacking trip around the world alone... BUT rest assured all the money you helped me raise went to the charities I was fundraising for!!!! and I'm just back here to say I received an email reply back from charity:water saying they will be sending out a report of the well at the end of this month! How very exciting!

It's taken them so long because typically they do not consider a project "complete" until they are sure that it is sustainable, and it normally takes them 18 months to follow up with reports. I'm pretty eager to see it on google earth and just to have a proper finale, and see the happy people who benefited from the clean water.

random pic of me on the salt flats - boliva

I'm still currently in the middle of traveling, back home in Brisbane just to pack up my gear and sell my remaining valuables to fund for the rest of my trip. It gets difficult when you haven't had income for over a year! But I'm doing something I will not regret, and it's been an interesting turn, something I definitely did not anticipate but was bound to happen. It's been great meeting up with Koiti's family who supported me all the way in Brazil during my South American journey.

I haven't baked for a while, and still crave for cake but steering towards a more health conscious diet lol... Anyway, keep a lookout on this spot for the mentioned "report" from charity:water in the near future.

xx, amy