It’s a cliché, but it’s true:  water is life.  This past year, ODFL completed water projects in Kenya, Ivory Coast, Ecuador, and Nepal.  The projects bring life, but they also bring freedom. 

The freedom comes when local people don’t have to spend hours a day carrying water to meet their needs.  In Kenya, we put in a catchment system that used the roofs of school buildings to capture rainwater.  In Ivory Coast, we installed a piping system to bring water the last half mile to the local village.  In Nepal, we installed a cistern to collect water from a nearby stream.  In Ecuador, we upgraded an existing water system with a new well and filtration system. 

Last year, we helped fund a new water well in Manyesa, Malawi.  The 5,000 residents of the village were living on the one crop a year that was possible when the rains came.  The new well will allow a second crop to be grown, effectively doubling the calories available to all the members of the village.  The well cost $12,500 and will last for 10 years.  When you divide it all out, that comes to $.25 (twenty five cents) per person per year over the life of the well.  It’s a good investment.