Help get safe water for Zambia's cholera outbreak.

Hi, my name is Greig Eichhorst and I’m organizing this fundraiser on behalf of the family I sponsor through Childfund International in Zambia Africa.

Zambia is facing its largest cholera outbreak in at least a decade, with over 600 deaths recorded since October 2023.

While this well would be placed on my sponsored families farm, the 20 neighboring farms would also use this well so over 100 souls will benefit from this well.

The drilling cost is $1,750. Then concrete needs to be poured around the pump so it doesn't turn into a muddy, unsanitary area. This adds $1,800. Then we need $1,100 to put fencing up to protect the pump from animals and keep the well from becoming contaminated. Pumps need to be maintained so I'm including $1,000 to keep the pump functioning during the first year and I'm using $350 to account for unknowns which brings the total to $6,000 for the complete installation.

The distance to safe water for my sponsored family is currently 3,280 yards or almost 2 miles away.

The absence of access to safe water poses acute human health risks because of bacteria and other pathogens. Some of these risks include diarrhea, cholera, typhoid fever and dysentery. My sponsored family currently walks 880 km or 962 yards to get to an unsafe water source.

Childfund’s local partner, Chibombo Child Development Agency (CCDA), serves the Kalola community, where my sponsored child lives. Located in a rural section of Zambia’s Central province, Kalola is about 50 miles north of the capital, Lusaka. Daily Life in rural Kalola: most families live below the poverty level, earning on average $25 a month through subsistence agriculture. The maize (corn) market, from July through September, is their primary income source. Most families here live in log houses, plastered with mud and covered with grass roofs. The pressed dirt floors are smeared with mud to prevent dust and ants. Cooking is done outside, over a three-stone fire. Many families collect water from unprotected shallow wells. Although Childfund has installed a few boreholes with hand pumps, this area is sparsely populated, making access to them difficult.

If this project is successful, the funds collected will be transferred to Childfund Zambia and the CCDA will oversee the project with Childfund Zambia assisting. We have quotes from Sunshine Boreholes (Z) LTD and SMR Construction out of Lusaka, Zambia to do the drilling, concrete and fencing work.

Please donate what you can. Thank you to anyone that provides monetary assistance.