Living Water

SIERRA LEONE—Newton, Batama Village
GPS: 08 19.192 N, 012 58.309 W

Like many people in Sierra Leone, the people of Batama Village have very little. There are nine houses in the village, even though more than fifty people live here. It takes one hour to walk from here to the nearest school, longer to walk to the nearest clinic.

One thing Batama Village had that other communities didn’t was two sources of water: a community well and a dirty swamp. Most people in the village gathered their water from the swamp, even though they knew it made them sick. Why? Because the contractor who dug the well had a disagreement with the community. There was no trust—no community involvement. As a result, people believed the well wasn’t built correctly and that the water was contaminated. The contractor never came back to check on the well, never came back to check on the people, never trained them in proper health and hygiene.

So the people drank from the swamp. For 23 years.

The people in Batama Village shared their struggles with our team. Children told us that drinking from the swamp made them feel sick. Everyone knew the swamp water was bad, but drinking from the well wasn’t an option, either. The pipes rusted through and the pad cracked years ago.

As we began repairing the well, community members worked alongside us, taking turns pulling pipe, digging the well deeper, and making additional casings. It wasn’t easy work, but they didn’t stop. At the beginning of each day the villagers would pray with us, and at the end of each day the women would serve us meals of rice and soup. While the team worked with some community members on the well, many of the women and children took part in the hygiene training classes. When the repair was finished, everyone gathered around the well to celebrate.

There was a true spirit of cooperation in Batama Village—in everything they did. They didn’t just help our team with the well; they helped each other with their homes, their fields, their crops, their children. With the well repair, they were empowered—offered the keys to their own transformation. Somehow, even though the people of Batama Village have very little, the value of their contribution was far greater than ours. It was their sweat, their time, their effort. They gave what they had. This is their well.