• Domaine :

  Water

• Région :

  Africa

• Pays :

  Cameroon

The project:

Drilling of two wells in villages in Koutaba and Bayamgan in Cameroon which will provide drinking water to 800 people.

The request:

Coup de Cœur Foundation
Mr. Jean Gagnon
Montreal

Dear Mr. Gagnon,

I would like to thank you for your visit last Saturday regarding the little booklet: Water, hope of survival. I especially appreciated the content of our discussion and the extent of your knowledge about the subject. It is reassuring to have your support for a cause which we hold dear. A special “thank you” for those reading glasses you left me. They are already on the way to Cameroon.
I am writing to you to propose a partnership in the digging of a drinking water well.
Presentation: 
The Congregation of the Priests of the Sacré-Cœur is active in 47 countries where we collaborate with different religious communities as well as secular groups. The digging of drinking water wells is one of our many projects. For now we have only dug such wells in Cameroon and Chad. We have two teams of well diggers on site, one in Cameroon and another in Chad. We reach target populations and form little groups in each village, keeping the chiefs and notables in mind throughout the process. There are villages of 300 people and others with as many as 15000. They must make a request for a well, after which we draw up a contract with them. They will have to provide land in the center of the village or wherever the dowser has detected groundwater. They will also form a “Pump Committee” for the maintenance and protection of the premises. The installation will cost CA $6 000.
Relevance:
The majority of water courses are contaminated and sources of drinking water are rare and remote, sometimes in the mountain. This means thatyoung water bearing girls must often walk 5 to 10 km to get there. They come back with a load of 10 to 20 kg on their head, usually taking up a large part of the day to accomplish this task, which they routinely repeat 3 times a week.
Surface water is almost always contaminated and therefore contain germs and infectious diseases which I will not enumerate here. We work to fight disease and guarantee safe and sanitary water for all families. From a social standpoint, it is our obligation to work together with the population. We also free young girls from the burden of such exhausting tasks, providing them with the opportunity to become literate and also to learn a trade (for now we only touch upon home economics, hygiene, and sewing).
Transparency and Governance:
We have a community of over 100 people on site. We consider this a “Province” at the legal and canonical level. This group is headed by the Provincial Superior and his Council as well as a Provincial Bursar (for financial and material resources management). They will administer and manage the funds we contribute to the digging of the wells. However, the remote management will happen here in Montreal.
Impact:
To date, we have dug over 245 wells. After a few weeks we realized that the villagers started taking up previously unknown disciplines thanks to the new wells. After a few months we noticed that most common diseases had disappeared. There are no more massive epidemics.
Again from a social standpoint, the population realize that together they can accomplish even more than individually. It is then that we see the emergence of village schools, a health clinic, an agricultural cooperative, and a center for teaching sewing and home economics for young ex-water bearing girls. Notably, there has been a better understanding among different religious groups (Christians, Muslims, and Animists).
Sustainability/Longevity:
As long as we have benefactors to support us in this endeavor we will be able to continue to dig. We already have waiting lists of approximately one hundred villages with even more villages being added. A conservative estimate suggests a virtual waiting list of over 900 requests.
You will surely succeed in attaining you initial objective of  providing water for 300,000 people.
I will be sure to keep note of the other projects we discussed, namely:
1- The sewing machines project for young girls
2- The special efforts in Chad (with FCC, Clifford and SCJ)
3- Drilling partnerships (4-5)

J.Claude Bedard SCJ
Procurator

Tanslated by Etienne Franchi

Financial contribution: