Physical Health South Sudan Project #16211

Build a well in South Sudan for 1500 people

by Water for South Sudan, Inc

Build a well in South Sudan for 1500 people

Project Report | Sep 25, 2017
WFSS Team Preparing for 2017-2018 Drilling season

By Cindy DeCarolis | Director of Development

Salva Dut and Linda Sue Park

The Water for South Sudan team has been hard at work preparing for the 2018 drilling season almost since the 2017 season ended in May. The WFSS Country Director and Assistant Country Director both traveled to the US in June where they participated in operations meetings, fundraising events, and WFSS's Annual Meeting. They returned to South Sudan ready to prep for 2018. Their primary objectives for 2018 are to drill up to 40 new wells and to rehabilitate 40 to 50 of our older wells.

Following are some of the other things our team is focused on:

The Leadership Council, comprised of the management team in South Sudan, is working to grow the work and impact of WFSS.
A new Sanitation Manager has been hired and is currently researching a pilot sanitation project for WFSS.
WFSS managers are receiving training in hygiene and sanitation to further hone their skills in these areas.
WFSS Country and Assistant Country Directors are both networking and interfacing with other NGO's in Wau, as well as with the water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) clusters in Wau and Juba. As a result, WFSS was asked to assist with emergency hygiene for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Wau.
WFSS successfully completed a capital campaign June 30th, raising more than $2.1 million. Several trucks have already been purchased and a new drilling rig is being sourced.

WFSS Founder and Senior Advisor, Salva Dut, was recognized as a Hearts on Fire Visionary (link to article below.) Salva will be returning to Rochester, NY this October to help with fundraising. He will be participating in Water Works! A brunch to celebrate peace and development in South Sudan on October 8th (link to RSVP below.) On October 11th Salva and Linda Sue Park, author of A Long Walk to Water will present to middle school students at Monroe Community College (MCC), this event will also be live streamed (link to register below.) And finally, on October 15th Salva will be participating in the 10th Annual Walk for Water hosted by the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Project at MCC

Thank you to all of you who have generously supported WFSS on GlobalGiving. You allow us to continue our work and we are grateful.

Drilling wells is muddy work

With access to fresh water children are healthier

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Jun 28, 2017
Another Successful Drilling Season for WFSS!

By Cindy DeCarolis | Director of Development

WFSS drilled new wells in 21 villages in 2017.

Water for South Sudan had a great 2017 drilling season, impacting 54 rural South Sudanese villages:

21 new wells were drilled in villages having no access to safe water, bringing the total number of wells drilled since 2003 to 304.
33 of the earliest wells drilled by WFSS had the platforms around the wells upgraded to a new, stronger and more sustainable design developed by WFSS in 2016.
All 54 villages received hygiene education to train villagers in keeping the water in the wells clean and to educate them about disease prevention.

Yar is just one of the many people our team met in the field this season. Yar lives in Boul, a village in Alabek County Tonj State, where WFSS installed a borehole well in 2007 and returned this season to rehab that well. Yar was asked how life has changed for the village in the ten years since the well was drilled. Yar enthusiastically replied that life has improved for everyone. Most notably, since the installation of the borehole the rate of water-borne diseases, such as diarrhea, Bilharzia, Typhoid, and Guinea Worm, has dropped significantly.

Yar also shared with the WFSS team that before the well was drilled only four people went to school. Currently there are 26 students, including nine girls. In addition, with plenty of clean water for them there are more domestic animals, such as cows. This provides milk for families providing nutrition that further enhances their health.

Yar was appreciative of the hygiene training provided and is happy that they know how to protect the water source, making it sustainable for a long future.

On behalf of Yar and the Boul community, Water for South Sudan thanks you for your support of our work.

With a well in her village, this child can go to s

team teaching villagers

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Apr 4, 2017
Update on Drilling Wells in South Sudan

By Cindy DeCarolis | Director of Development

The first well drilled by WFSS in 2017

Water for South Sudan's (WFSS) 2016-2017 drilling season is successfully underway. Although the media reports of unrest in South Sudan are real, WFSS's team is safe and able to continue drilling wells in remote rural villages in South Sudan.

The WFSS compound is located in Wau. There are over twenty NGO's operating in Wau and none of them have considered evacuating their employees or their equipment. WFSS leadership in South Sudan receives security reports from NGO Forum Security Focal Point, an ACTED organization. If there is a situation where other NGO's are evacuating the WFSS team will evacuate to an NGO assembling point, or other safe place.

In addition to WFSS, some of the other NGO's operating in Wau are:

United Nations Mission in South Sudan
World Food Programme
World Health Organization
UNICEF
Medicine Sans Frontiers
OXFAM

To date this season, WFSS has drilled 11 new wells and rehabilitated 16 wells drilled in previous years. The need for rehabbing some of WFSS's earliest wells arose from an evaluation of 80 wells conducted by a WFSS team in 2015. The team discovered that while all of the wells were operational, many of the wells had cracked and broken cement platforms caused by animals drinking from the well. To rectify this, in 2016 WFSS redesigned the well to draw animals away from the pump to a drinking pool. In addition, WFSS is now using bentonite, a stronger substance, for the well platforms. Several years ago, WFSS began conducting hygiene training in every village where they drill a well. This season WFSS added a second hygiene team to travel with the rehab team to provide hygiene training in villages where our earliest wells were drilled.

This season, WFSS has rehabbed a borehole drilled in 2007 in Boul, a village in Alabek County Tonj State. Yar is a woman living in the community of Boul. Yar spoke with the WFSS rehab / hygiene team, noting the positive impacts on the community as a result of clean water and hygiene training. Yar pointed out that the lives of human beings have improved because everyone has access to safe drinking water and many families have improved their personal hygiene practice. One of the most significant indicators is the reduction in Guinea Worm Disease, diarrheal disease, Bilharzia, and Typhoid. Yar stated, "Since 2011 we have not seen one person in the area affected by Guinea Worm."

Yar also spoke of changes in village lifestyle as a result of having clean water, "before the well was drilled only four people went to school, the number has increased to 26, including nine girls." Yar applauded WFSS, "the villagers of Boul are grateful to WFSS and to the donors who contribute to life-supporting projects to safeguard the life of South Sudan's rural population."

Thank you to GlobalGiving and to all of you who have contributed to this project. WFSS is 100 percent privately funded, receiving no revenue from either the US or South Sudanese governments. Without you, the WFSS team would not have the capacity to bring safe, clean water to people like Yar and the Boul community.

Since 2005, WFSS has installed 293 borehole wells and conducted hygiene in villages. The wells become the property of the villages, who are responsible for maintaining the wells.

WFSS redesigned the cement base of wells in 2016

WFSS hygiene team training villagers

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