Donated by Chartwells and Weston College through purchases of Life Water

Yei Secondary School is located one mile west of the town centre of Yei on the Yei Maridi Road. The well not only serves 520 students that attend the school, but the surrounding community that has an average of 600 people in total. The surrounding community once based its livelihood on agriculture. Mr Charles Karaba is the chairperson of the well committee at Yei Day Secondary School. He spends his days farming whilst his three youngest children attend Yei Day. When conflict hit their area, many people were forced to leave their homes, but Charles and his family stayed. The school remained a safe place for students to attend, and the well was heavily relied upon for relief for both students and surrounding villages. Due to the increased use of the well, and lack of community funds to maintain the pump, the well fell into disrepair. Soon, two of the three children Charles had in school were forced to drop out so they could help collect water from a well that was located 1.5 miles from their home.

Through the support of Chartwells and Weston College, the restored well at Yei Day Secondary School has allowed Charles’ children to return to school as well as so many others. The availability of fresh, clean water to students will enable them to focus better on their studies as they are better hydrated and have more time to be at school, not having to seek their source of water elsewhere.

This project was undertaken as part of our campaign of projects that actively reduce carbon emissions. This project helped the community save their much needed wood which was previously being burnt daily to boil water. This project has also eliminated the many thousands of hours previously spent on walking to collect water.