Description
Our primary focus is providing clean water to the people of Sierra Leone, Africa.
Why Water?
Almost 1 billion people in the world don’t have access to clean water and sanitation. Every year 3.5 million people die from water-borne illness. Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of diseases and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Every day almost 4,000 children die due to unsafe drinking water. That’s almost one child every 20 seconds. In Africa alone, people spend 40 billion hours every year just walking for water. It is primarily women and children who spend much of their day walking to collect water that is unclean and will likely make them sick.
How does it work?
Let them LOL does yearly assessment trips to Sierra Leone. During these assessments, we visit targeted villages, and determine which water solution best fits that community. Many factors are taken into consideration, including: size of the village, do they have access to any water source?, how far away is that water source?, do they have an old well that can be rehabilitated. Then, working with the community, it is determined which water solution is most appropriate for that village.
CLEAN WATER SOLUTIONS:
Clean Water Well (using a percussion rig or hand dug crew) Cost $6,000
Well Rehabilitation: Cost (varies based on condition of the well)
Occasionally, our assessment teams will discover that there is an abandoned well in the village. It can be abandoned for many reasons (including but not limited to): contamination, it dried up or it was damaged during the war. In these cases if it is determined that the well can be rehabilitated, it will be.
Why Sierra Leone?
A destructive eleven-year rebel conflict ruined much of the country’s infrastructure and continues to have
devastating effects on people’s lives. The country is ranked at the bottom of the United Nation’s Index of Developing Countries and has one of the highest under 5 mortality rates in the world. The life expectancy is 42 years old and 1 in 50 women die in child birth. And yet, despite living in extreme poverty, Sierra Leone is a beautiful country filled with resilient, beautiful people. We chose to focus on one region, in one of the poorest country in the world. Our hope is that over time, we will be able to see a lasting impact of real, sustainable change.
