Our Founder’s Story

Early Days in the Heart of Africa

Jim Hocking grew up in the Central African Republic.

His missionary parents fostered in him a deep love for the country and its people. He spoke a local Central African language, Sango, before he spoke English. After a childhood in Central Africa, Jim sought to follow in his parent’s footsteps, attending Grace College and seminary in Indiana with the intent to return to the mission field. Once he’d finished school, Jim immediately returned to CAR in 1977, this time with his wife, Faye.

A Young Couple Returns

The Hockings began their work in training leaders for youth ministry, then followed that program up with a literacy campaign that launched 200 schools across the CAR and provided bilingual literature in both French and Sango. Over the next 20 years the Hockings devoted their careers and lives to CAR, raising their four children there.

For Jim, abandoning the people of CAR was not an option.

He had seen too much over the years — people’s basic physical needs were unmet, AIDS was ravaging the region, and the realities of poverty and war were creating hopelessness. Jim wanted to help address these needs and build something with the people of CAR that would be sustainable and could withstand political upheaval.

Little did he know that just a few months later, a good friend would offer to sell his well-drilling business to Jim if Jim would run it as a non-profit. This offer seemingly came out of the blue, and Jim protested that he didn’t know the first thing about drilling wells, let alone how to start a nonprofit.

But he knew how desperately Central Africans needed clean water.

For most of the 4.7 million people who live in the Central African Republic, collecting water means an hour-long walk hauling heavy 44-pound jugs of water from streams, rivers and seep holes — water that isn’t even sanitary. After visiting several villages in the CAR to assess their water retrieval methods, Jim was ready to act.

“My attitude had changed by seeing the struggle these villages were having with healthcare issues. Kids were dying really young and it was tragic. I realized ‘This is what God’s asking me to do, and I needed to figure out how.’”

Founding Water for Good

That act of obedience was the beginning of what Jim would eventually call “Water for Good.” There are many challenges to getting fresh water to remote villages in the CAR. Getting a well drilled is only the first step. Jim saw that many other clean water initiatives overlooked the fact that the well pumps would inevitably break and the village would be right back where it started: without safe drinking water. He knew that sustainability was key to the success of any well, and that locals could not depend on Westerners for well maintenance — that model was financially unsustainable.

From the beginning, Jim founded Water for Good to become a nonprofit that not only drills wells, but does so relying on all local staff that provide regular well maintenance. The local staff build relationships with communities, and work with them to start projects that will prosper and empower the community long-term. When people have power over their well and begin to assert that same power in their life choices, it’s transformative for a community.

Jim started with an idea that through clean water, Central Africans could change their country. And they are.

Local Central African have drilled more than 680 new wells and are maintaining 1,000 water pumps in the CAR. Over half a million people are drinking water from these wells every day. People are staying healthy, they’re able to generate more income, and they’re making a difference in their communities —for good.