Your coffee helped these people
Our church, in line with Jesus mission, seeks to help the disadvantaged.
We do this in Burkina Faso, Johannesburg and Malawi.
In particular the coffee shop seeks to support the Malawian project by providing clean water in villages.
A borehole costs around £6,000 and transforms a village of typically 2,000 – 4,000 people. A borehole lasts at least 25 years and needs only occasional repair of the mechanical pump. That cost works out to 8p for a year’s clean water for someone. It saves lives, blindness and disease and gives time to work and to be around family to that person.
Pools
Pools get contaminated by animals, people stirring up the water etc and the water contains disease. There is not enough firewood to be able to boil all the water, though they are encouraged to do so. In the dry season the pools dry up and they are faced with walking several kilometres to get water from a stream. This limits the amount of water they can carry and uses up a lot of time. The streams become contaminated from wider use including washing.
Rivers
The rivers are very few and while they have plentiful water, they contain a parasite that causes river blindness. Many people who live near the rivers go blind.
Boreholes
The solution is to drill boreholes. Water can be found typically 50-60m below the ground surface. A borehole can be fitted with a lever to pump up the water. It seals the top of the borehole pipe and prevents any contamination.
Typical housing in dry areas are made of sticks and dried grasses. Without water it is difficult to make or maintain mud coating to seal from dust and rain
Less obvious but a huge benefit of water is the economic and social impact. People have much more time available. They are able to grow food better; the men can work rather than looking after children, while the wife is walking many kilometres to get water and waiting in a queue for several hours each day. They have water to make bricks and can improve their houses.
A church member recently visited a remote village that had a borehole funded by the church. The villagers gathered and reported the changes they had experienced – the dangers of water collecting were gone (snakes, crocodiles, contamination), they were no longer ill, they got much more time with their families and husbands and had lots more energy to do productive tasks. It was so encouraging to see the impact of a borehole on a village of 3,000 people. They are very touched that we are aware of their plight and want to help them. We tell them that the love of Jesus in our hearts stirs us to do something.
A local pastor, Lapson Mbewe, who lives in one of the villages, provides advice and oversees the projects so that they are well done. He goes from village to village teaching and assessing needs.
