Lauren Hickman 15 Year Anniversary Water Project

As a 19 year old, I spent a summer in Ghana hoping between different projects with orphanages, schools, and sanitation projects. On one occasion I had the opportunity to join Africa Heartwood Project* and visit one of their newly finished water wells. On the treacherous drive to the rural village, I remember seeing a group of kids crouched over a muddy puddle of water. They were filling buckets for their daily use. I was shocked! I couldn’t imagine being so desperate for water that I would drink from a muddy puddle. This experience has stuck with me over the years.

As I have been approaching my 15 year anniversary from the time I went to Africa, I have felt a strong pull to get involved again. Africa Hartwood Project has continued drilling wells for communities with no access to clean water and I’m thrilled to initiate the drilling of a new well in Liberia in 2025. This is such a meaningful offering that will have an impact for many years. Please join me in providing this basic human need for a community who cannot attain it otherwise.

*Africa Heartwood Project is a grassroots nonprofit working to eliminate constraints to freedoms for three groups of friends in West Africa: Orphans; Rural communities without clean water; Cultural artisans. We act in partnership with individuals and communities to increase their security and opportunity using sustainable, participatory, results-oriented methods. We are an all-volunteer organization with no administrative overhead, allowing 100% of donations received to be used to implement the projects.