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| Photo courtesy of Daniel Benah |
Los Angeles, April 11, 2007 — More than 10,000 residents from four remote villages in Ghana now have a source of clean drinking water, thanks to a grant The Prem Rawat Foundation made to the National Council of Women of the United States a few months ago at a special event held at the United Nations in New York. A few days ago, representatives of the two organizations joined village elders, residents, and local officials in ceremonies commissioning the wells. Mary Singletary, president of NCW-US, represented her organization. TPRF was represented by Emmanuel Adjei, from Ghana.
A proverb in Ghana says, “He who brings water brings life.” Speaking at a ceremony commissioning a hand-operated well in the village of Azzar, home to 1,000 people, Mohammed Issah, an official of Ghana’s Eastern District, said, “With clean water, we can go about daily life without having to worry about waterborne diseases.” Another well was installed in Amagama, a village of the same size. These villages have no electricity, so the wells had to be dug by hand in rocky soil.
Many people in rural Ghana face disease and death just to get the water they need for drinking, cooking, and washing. Fetching water is the responsibility of old women and young girls, who must rise early each morning to walk to streams which may be five to fifteen miles away. They return balancing huge buckets on their heads. Young girls have no time to go to school. Water from these sources often spreads disease, because it is also used for bathing, laundry, and watering animals and crops.
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| Photo courtesy of Daniel Benah |
For residents of Klo-Agogo, Okornya-Somanya, Amagama, and Azzar, in Eastern Ghana, this deadly cycle has finally ended. “The people of the villages are happy and relieved that at long last, one of their major problems has been resolved with the provision of the wells,” said Quawo Nanye, a member of Ghana’s national assembly.
A teacher in one village said she was grateful girls could now come to school promptly—not three hours after the boys. “This will give them a chance to complete their education and give them a better start in life.”
Electric-powered wells were installed in two larger communities: Okornya-Somanya, with 3,000 residents, and Klo-Agogo, with 5,000. In Klo-Agogo, a regional trading center, dignitaries took turns sipping the first water from the well, as villagers cheered.
Regional Minister Yaw Barimi, governor of Ghana’s Eastern Region, spoke to a large crowd at the ceremony. “This well will improve the lives of our people,” he said. “We are thankful to The Prem Rawat Foundation and the National Council of Women of the United States for their generous contribution of this well.”
Discover more about Prem Rawat, his message of hope and peace, and the humanitarian activities of The Prem Rawat Foundation
