For all of 2018,
you could find Izabela on a hot dusty road in the Central African Republic.
As a spirited 30-year old Polish woman, she took on an adventurous task: she did a headcount of our focus region, which is the size of Massachusetts.
You may be asking, why a headcount? The last census in the Central African Republic was taken two civil wars and almost 20 years ago. In order to reach the entire country with clean drinking water, we need to know how many people actually live in the villages and how many working wells are available.
OVER THE SPAN OF 14 MONTHS,
Izabela and her team of four CAR locals moved throughout the region of Mambéré-Kadéï, counting the villagers and assessing their water wells. Equipped with a Water for Good truck and laptop, they ventured into remote villages and asked the chief or clinic workers to list everyone in the area, by name. Izabela would then verify the estimated population by visiting several households.
As the baseline team collected the information, we realized there were over 100,000 people living in these villages than the official estimate. This means there are more wells that need to be drilled and even more lives that need to be saved than we originally anticipated. The good news is that with these additional wells, we are confident that adequate water access will be available for generations to come.
Imagine if only 7% of Massachusetts
had clean drinking water
Only seven percent of the focus region has access to clean water. With your increased support, we can directly impact 85,000 people with new water access in Mambéré-Kadéï.
