Charity’s new water project to help slowdown COVID
Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) poverty alleviation charity, Hope Spring completed a water project in Sierra Leone last month . The Hereford based charity, working in partnership with a local borehole contractor, completed the project which was expected to help the beneficiaries to fight the spread of COVID, by promoting handwashing.
The borehole is expected to benefit hundreds of residents of Gofor Village in Sierra Leone, West Africa. The low cost well-borehole hybrid facility combines aspects of borehole technology; uses a pumping mechanism akin to a bicycle pump, to bring water from the well on to the surface.
The borehole which went into use the moment it was completed, will significantly reduce the amount of time women and children spend trekking to fetch water. In sub-Saharan African and other water poor parts of the world, women and children tend to shoulder most of the burden associated with fetching water for the family.
The Gofor village water project was funded by Hope Spring, from donations raised from their charity birthday video ecard campaign of 2020.
Speaking about the project, a trustee of the charity Temi Odurinde said “we are very pleased with the speedy completion of the Gofor borehole project. The COVID pandemic has slowed down more water projects, thanks to our contractor and the local community in Gofor, we were able to complete the project on time”. He added that “apart from the fact that the new borehole will reduce the time it takes the community to walk to their current previous water source, it will also help in their fight against the spread of COVID and other hygiene related challenges, that simple hand washing with clean water could prevent”.
Commenting on the project, a spokesperson for the local contractor in Sierra Leone Mr Benson Kandeh said “it was very satisfying to be part of this project, It was pleasing to see the happiness on the faces of the school children who accepted the completion of the project on behalf of their community”.
Hope Spring and their contractors are now working on their next project, in a different part of Sierra Leone. To keep up to date with Hope Spring projects, follow them on Pinterest.