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Newsletter Christmas 2022

 Weinstadt, December 2022

Dear friends of Institute Water in Africa!  

Another year is almost over. Time passes and we are glad that in the last months of the year we could once again be on the road to the poorest of the poor.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?

My tears have been my food day and night,
while people say to me all day long, ‘Where is your God?’  

                                               Ps. 42,2.3

Close Relationship With God

A person comes home to his empty flat. He hangs up his coat and sits down on the couch. Then the radio is immediately switched on and the room fills with music.

Do you also wonder why many people break the silence in their homes by watching TV or listening to music? Aren't they trying to suppress the feeling of loneliness?

God created us humans with a longing for him. God wants a close relationship with us. He alone can fill our inner emptiness, which many try to overcome with activities and events. But it remains unsuccessful. Not until we turn to the Son of God. The Bible says: "He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. (1 John 5:12). When we come to Jesus Christ and believe in Him, He gives us forgiveness of sins and eternal life. 

Then we are in a happy relationship with the Lord Jesus and get to know God as our Father. This is what gives our life the right meaning. It is necessary that we have daily fellowship with God and our Lord so that we can enjoy the joy of a happy Christian life. Please make sure that the many activities of everyday life do not crowd out our quiet time with God!

After a text from the devotional book "Closer to You" by John MacArthur 

The drilling work went well. We drilled 55m deep and already during drilling it was visible that there was a lot of water. Around 8 pm, the well was drilled and the pipes installed and the big moment came: the borehole was flushed with compressed air. A large jet of water only came out for a few seconds. So there was not enough water flowing in. It then turned out that the drilling company had installed the filter and blind pipes in the wrong order.

‍ All the pipes had to be removed from the borehole again and installed in the correct order. After one and a half days the mistake was corrected and plenty of water came out of the borehole, about 5,100 litres per hour.

On 26 September, we handed over the well with hand pump to the school and inaugurated it.

The long and tiring walks to fetch water are now history.

‍After the inauguration, our staff member Flory, who comes from the DR Congo, held a WASH seminar (WASH = Water - Sanitation - Hygiene) for the population. Contents were

• "What is water?",

• "What is clean water?"

• "How do I keep water clean?" etc.

• The interest of the population was great.

Population in and around Okwalongwen has a Well with Hand pump

After only one day, the well in Okwanlongen was drilled in the bush and fitted with pipes. There was great joy when a jet of water came out of the borehole shortly before nightfall. An estimated 2,700 litres of water per hour are now available. Hopelessness is followed by hope for a better life.

Three days later, the surround was concreted and the hand pump installed. It was immediately put into operation by the population, even before the concrete was poured. The main thing is clean water. There is no more impressive way to describe the need for clean water.

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Travel reports

Blessing in the Bush

By Dr. Rossi Shamir

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‍September this year I had the privilege to go with IWFA for an assignment. It was a long trip for me because I joined the team a few days later in Uganda.

After I met the team, we went to the bush, where there is no road! In that place I saw a deep hopelessness in the people, especially due to lack of clean water.

That hopelessness turned to joy, when the clean water of the newly drilled borehole was in bursting out. Suddenly there was Joy and happiness in the heart of people, because now they can drink clean water with no contamination. I met two young boys and I saw them before and after the borehole was in place with running water. I saw the joy on their face – then I realized that this is the main reason of the IWFA Mission – to reach the difficult, isolated places and help those who need it most.

Millions of children are dying every year due to contaminated water. Clean water is giving quality of life and prevents many preventable diseases.

Another highlight of the outreach was the opportunity to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ – the Living Water, while the community came together to celebrate the new well. Many people, especially children, received Salvation of Jesus.

My First Trip With IWFA
Well Construction Project
in Adyangowe, Uganda

By Miriam Stahn

‍Seeing the lives of the people in Africa on the ground for the first time particularly touched me on my first trip with Institute Water for Africa e.V. (IWFA) to Uganda in September 2022. In this report, I would like to give you a picture of what their everyday life is like and how valuable access to clean water is for them. 

First of all, I would like to introduce myself briefly:

Besides working as a team and project leader in an international company, I have been supporting IWFA on a voluntary basis since April 2021 in the areas of public relations, social media design and project planning. This year I got the opportunity to travel to Africa for the first time at private expense to experience a complete well construction project from start to finish and to support the association and the work on site. 

Together with Jürgen, I started my journey in the south of Uganda and travelled from Entebbe via Kampala to Lira in the north of the country. From there we drove one hour every day over rough terrain to the village of Adyangowe. The well was built on the site of the Adyangowe Nursery & Primary School, a kindergarten and school founded in 2006 after the return of villages displaced by the civil war. We received a very warm welcome there. Moses, the director of the school, told us that the villagers, teachers and pupils prayed for a well every Sunday. The joy and gratitude that this is now becoming a reality was overwhelming. When the drilling company rolled onto the site with heavy equipment, the children's attention was fully detached from their school lessons and everyone flocked to the scene. It was finally starting!

First, they drilled down to a depth of 55m and then cased the borehole. Once this was done, the foundation for the pump was concreted and finally the hand pump was installed. The days on the construction site in Adyangowe were long and hot and we often returned to the hotel in Lira late in the evening. 

My main task was the documentation on site, on the one hand for our social media channels, on the other hand also very practically in the context of construction supervision. The latter included, for example, counting the installed pipes, assessing soil samples and checking the quality of the working materials. With each passing day, the initial shyness of the students, teachers and villagers gave way more and more and I learned a lot about their daily lives in conversations. I was even allowed to conduct a few interviews with some of them.ägliches Leben. Mit einigen habe ich sogar ein paar Interviews führen dürfen.

Twice I walked with them to the water point 1.6 km away, from where the children and villagers have fetched water 3-4 times a day so far. The way there leads over narrow field paths and is especially dangerous after rain showers. The sight of the waterhole itself shocked me - a hole in the ground where brown water collects. The place where the water can be scooped is also difficult to access and slippery. With jerrycans weighing up to 20kg on our heads, we walked back to the village, with even the smallest children having to carry 5-10kg each. 

However, the people in Adyangowe used to depend on this water. They used it as drinking water, for cooking, washing, cleaning and last but not least for watering their livestock. Due to the polluted water, people suffered from diseases and poor hygiene. Often, children could not attend school due to illness. ‍But not only clean water is important, but also direct access.

Fetching water used to take an enormous amount of time. In total, the children and women of the surrounding villages were busy fetching water for 4 hours a day.

 Brian, a Grade 7 student told me that he was often too tired for class because of the distance. For many girls and women, a long walk to the water point means they have no chance of schooling, even if the family could afford it financially, because in Africa women are responsible for providing for their families. 

On Monday, 26 September 2022, the time had finally come and the pump was ceremoniously inaugurated. The joy of the children when they were finally allowed to stream to the hand pump was overwhelming. All the effort of the past days had paid off and I was just happy.

Looking back, the trip to Uganda was incredibly enriching with all the experiences I gained. Not only was I able to use the time on site intensively for IWFA's work, but the impressions grounded me once more and showed me what is really important in life. This strengthened my commitment to the association in a completely new way, because I experienced first-hand that the work of IWFA is important for the people in Africa and that our help really reaches where it is urgently needed.

Our next Project

2023: Water Supply for the Mission Hospital in Abedju, DR. Kongo (Project 20303)

Can we get water?

Maybe you still remember it? 

Perhaps the name Abedju sounds familiar?

Right, we were already on site here.

Situation on The Ground

In the village of Abedju in the DR Congo (Democratic Republic of Congo), there is a mission hospital with 60 beds for inpatient and outpatient treatment. The hospital has no water supply. The water needed is fetched from about 1km away from a polluted spring using jerry cans. The water is used for all activities such as maintaining personal hygiene or cleaning, but also for cooking and drinking and thus for the daily care of the staff and patients.

What Has Been Done so Far?

• In 2018, we carried out survey work on the hospital site and produced
  an as-built plan. 
• 2019 Hydrogeological investigation and drilling of a borehole 
• The hydrogeological survey is used to measure whether water is present and at what depth, but the amount of water cannot be determined.
• After drilling, only 500 litres of water per hour were available. Therefore, we decided to conduct another hydrogeological survey to find a more suitable location for another borehole.
• In 2020 we were not allowed to travel to DR Congo due to the Corona pandemic
• 2021, the second hydrogeological investigation was finally carried out. The result of the investigation was that there is no more promising site on the hospital grounds. Furthermore, we lacked the financial means to continue.

What Can be Done Now?

There is a water source about 1km from the hospital. This is bacterially contaminated. This source can still be used for the hospital's water supply, but the water has to be treated. 

IWFA can implement the following on site with your help: 

• The spring water is to be collected with pipes in deep tanks at the spring intake. We have to build this deep tank and lay the corresponding pipes.
• From there, the water is to be pumped into an elevated tank on the hospital grounds.
• From the elevated tank, pipes will be laid into the hospital building and washbasins will be installed in the patients' and examination rooms.

Due to the lack of infrastructure in the region in the DR Congo, the procurement of materials for this project is enormously costly. The materials have to be imported from Uganda. 

The project cost is an estimated $80,000.

What is The Next Step For The Project?

"Challenges are like opponents in the ring. You never turn your back on them."
- Wladimir Klitschko, former world boxing champion

We would like to work with you to implement the project as described above! Are you ready? The situation on the ground is unbearable. We are now pooling all our resources and finances to focus on this project in 2023.

Together with your support, we can get clean water flowing in Abedju. You can not only improve the local living situation, but really save lives. Because with clean water, diseases and their spread can be prevented, treatments can be carried out without risk of infection and general hygiene can be increased.

Thank you very much for your support!