Mairame smiles while holding a chicken and sitting in front of her flock

Water Has Brought Back Their Dignity

February Impact Story

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Water is the basis of life. Without it, crops can’t grow and animals can’t survive.

Heifer’s work has always focused on hunger, poverty and environmental sustainability. However, we realized in recent years that water also needed to be a focus — because without community access and management of water, our project participants simply cannot achieve their goals.

With your valuable monthly support, Heifer is creating a new generation of projects designed specifically to improve water access and quality in dry areas. Our goal is to ensure convenient access to a safe and reliable water source for irrigation, drinking, sanitation, hygiene and animal health.

water well drilling rig — Water well drilling rigs, like the one pictured above, are used to drill the borehole that will bring lifesaving water to a community.

In Mbonaye, the village in northeast Senegal where Mairame Barry and her husband are raising their three boys and three girls, two Heifer-built solar-powered wells provide ready access to clean, fresh water all year long. This transformational improvement uplifted the lives of the entire village and led to bigger crop yields … healthier, more productive animals … better personal and home hygiene … and even added income.

four images of men working on the well — Pictured at top, men unload pipes, which will carry water up from a nearly 400-foot borehole. Since the well is so deep, a traditional handpump won’t do. So a generator is brought in to pump the water up from far under the ground.

The generator for the well will be solar-powered. Once the well is finished, it will provide clean drinking water for two communities. The water will also be used to irrigate vegetable gardens and keep animals healthy.

Gathering water, Mairame said, “used to be a very laborious process that took at least two people and three donkeys.”

The donkeys helped the women slowly pull water out of the ground, bucket by bucket. But it was only enough to last two days. “Then, [we] would have to repeat the process,” Mairame said. “Sometimes there was not enough water in the well. Then we would have to wait. Also, the water was not of a desirable quality.”

Mairame smiling and holding a chicken — Mairame is president of the Baamtare self-help group, which has worked with Heifer’s *Sahel Water Exploration* project for more than four years.

Mairame can now gleefully report that since Heifer launched our water project, “We get clean and potable water less than 10 minutes from home. We do not use donkeys to pull water anymore, and we can get [twice as much] water daily.”

group standing over updated well — This well provides convenient access to a safe and reliable water source for irrigation, drinking, sanitation, hygiene and animal health.

Having ample fresh water has been a major benefit for the family’s livestock and crop production. And the garden — well, it’s twice as big and produces food even in the dry seasons! “We now have enough vegetables in the community and do not have to travel six kilometers [almost 4 miles] to get vegetables and water; our gardens flourish year-round,” Mairame said.

“Water has brought back our dignity.”
— Mairame

These improvements in the lives of mothers like Mairame, her six children, and their entire community are a direct result of your generous commitment to the work of Heifer International.

Thank you

With you by our side, we can lift more families out of poverty and bring transformative change to other hard-working farmers just like Mairame Barry.