From Friends With Love...(2)

Friends with large Hearts

After the visit to the village by my friends and colleagues, we got back to the office and they asked me “what do you think the village needs urgently?”
Many thoughts, many suggestions, and many ideas were racing through my head at the same time. I thought of the women giving birth at home, surely a proper maternity and labor room where obstetrics could be taken would be fantastic. I thought of children falling sick hence upgrading the village health center and employing a doctor that would show up twice a week would be a great idea. But all the above would be capital intensive. One image that never left me since I got to the village is that of the little boy with guinea worm. When I read about the disease, I found out that the best way to prevent it was through having clean portable water. Consequently, it was easy for me to suggest to my colleagues that sinking a borehole to provide clean water for the villagers would be the best as this would be a sort of disease prevention measure.

So we swung into action. How much would a borehole cost? We were told an average of five hundred thousand naira only but that was dependent on the depth they have to go before reaching the aquifer (water table). Waoh, that’s a huge sum! How would we raise that amount without having to compel or put pressure on people? I must say I have my sister Uzoma Ekwebelem to thank for this. She suggested if fifty of us contributed ten thousand naira each (N10,000.00) then we would easily raise five hundred thousand naira. Also, she decided to coordinate it. We however had a little hurdle to cross and that was the fact that were not up to fifty in number in the Abuja office, so we decided to get our colleagues in Lagos involved. It took several months of getting others to key into the vision. It took several calls, persuasions, explanations, telling stories, and sharing pictures of our earlier visit. Eventually, we got fifty-three of our colleagues to pay N10,000 each raising a total of five hundred and thirty thousand naira (N530,000.00). This was made possible by Uzoma’s tenacity and commitment to the course.

Next was the decision as per where to sink the well. I did not want anyone laying claim to it saying “it’s in my compound” or “it’s on my land”. Some of the church members wanted it on the premises of the church but I declined. I wanted it where everybody in the community could have access to it. Eventually and decided it should be in the compound of the only primary school in the community. This would afford the children access to clean water during school hours and houses around the school would be able to fetch water after school hours. I discussed this with the Headmaster and he was overwhelmed with joy. By the time all these were happening, we were in the middle of the rainy season. As a result, the road had become very bad and marshy. A team went for the geological survey and marked the best location for the borehole.

First Water From the Well

However, the trucks that were to dig the well were getting stuck along the way. We had to change from one contractor to another until we got in touch with a well-experienced contractor who was used to working with rural communities. He got a truck that could navigate the terrible road and eventually dug the well. The borehole came alive and the headmaster called to give me the good news. Since there was no electricity in the village, the well could not be electrically pumped hence we had to make do with a hand-pumped well. The community was happy, the children were excited and the Headmaster ecstatic, immediately appointing a water prefect for the borehole.

Pupils of LEA Primary School, Gbaukuchi

We all took another trip to the village to commission the project and it was all joy watching the kids pump the water. All the teachers expressed their appreciation for the gesture and recanted the problems they had in the past having to source water for the pupils.
My appreciation goes to everyone that made this possible starting from Nwannem Uzoma Ekwebelem for her coordination of the contributions; Saidu Abdullahi for his leadership; Bukola Ogunleye, Emeka Igbeka, Chris Olayinka, Funmilayo Cynthia James, Ibifuro, Solomon Aligwekwe, Thaddeus Babaoye, Danjuma Ahmed, Martin Elugbaju, Bisike Uba, Adepegba Oduntan, Ayotunde Afolabi and many others I can’t mention here. God bless you all real good.
Special thanks to Mr. Dipo Oketunji for bringing his experience in sinking wells in rural communities on board in accomplishing this task.
This is just one problem solved out of many. Borrowing the words of another, it is but a small step for now but a great step in the improvement of mankind.