Water, the Gift of Life – help provide a new Hand Pump

Why Water?  

Children walk many miles across the deserts of Darfur for every drop of water. In the hottest, summer months it is not unusual for some villagers to journey 20 miles to the nearest source. It was meeting a nine year old boy, struggling across the hot sand with a heavy jerry can that inspired Patricia Parker MBE to found Kids for Kids. His seven hour walk to reach a handpump, and then to face the even harder walk home, she said, gave her no alternative but to try to help. There is water underground in Darfur, but villagers cannot afford to drill for it.

Since 2001 Kids for Kids has been providing handpumps for remote villages, and repairing as many as possible. Patricia says “There is nothing more tragic than to see a handpump standing idle because no one has repaired it. Water is so desperately needed and nowhere more so than in a country like Darfur where temperatures in the summer can be over 50 degrees. Every child has the right to water. To see life giving water flowing from a handpump near to people’s homes for the first time, is unforgettable.”

Kids for Kids’ handpumps can be named for someone special, or a special event. They provide a living memorial, providing life giving water in a land the rest of the world has forgotten. There are handpumps to celebrate weddings, birthdays, christenings, to commemorate special events and to provide a lasting memorial for a loved one.  Please contact patricia@kidsforkids.org.uk 07957206440 for more details.

A Handpump in Darfur currently costs £6,500 ($8,775) to implement.

Water is the Right of every child – yet even small children walk miles across the deserts of Darfur, under the searing sun, to reach water.   Clean water is a dream in villages.   Hafirs (small hand-dug reservoirs) have no filters so water is dirty, leading to life threatening sickness.  Yet under Darfur lies the largest aquifer (water reservoir) in Africa, if only you can afford to dig for it.

Children walk for water instead of going to school.  A hand pump close to a village enables all the boys and girls to go to school every day, and gives them a real chance of a better future.    Hand pumps close to villages mean that families can grow vegetables – often for the first time in their lives.   Water is the gift of life.

Can you Give a Pump and transform the lives of children?   If you would like your gift to celebrate a special occasion, provide a living memorial of a loved one, or be named after you, please contact Patricia Parker, Founder, on +4407957 206440 , email patricia@kidsforkids.org.uk. We will also keep you updated of where the handpump will be located and when it is installed.

Submersible Pumps:  When a plentiful supply of water is found it may be possible to install a submersible pump with a diesel generator which pumps water to the surface and can help hundreds of people.  For details please contact Patricia.

Hand pumps:  These are often the only way the aquifer under Darfur can be reached, but this has to be sourced through a geophysical electro-magnetic survey and then drilled. Virtually the only hand pumps that have been installed since the violence started in 2002 have been for the vast IDP camps. People are still walking miles for water. It is heartbreaking seeing children in such need.  A new pump is currently £6,500, ($8,775) including fencing to keep the water source clean, and training of a Water Committee to service the pump.

We desperately need help to fund & repair more handpumps. Recently we also funded the repair to 30 hand pumps. This transformed life for hundreds of families. There is no more tragic sight than seeing a handpump broken near a village.  Hopes dashed, and people helpless to do anything about it themselves.  Repairing a pump costs just £500.   Seeing a pump standing idle and broken is heartbreaking when temperatures soar to over 50 degrees centigrade.

£6,500.00