Drinking Water to Hundreds in Northern Namibia

Utah Based Charity Restores Drinking Water to Hundreds in Drought-Stricken Northern Namibia

Salt Lake City, UT – October 19, 2019 

The Salt Lake City based non-profit One Pencil Project is making an impact in Namibia during its worst recorded drought in 90 years. The charity, which typically provides school supplies to children in rural communities of foragers, partnered with the Namibian Red Cross Society to rebuild wells in the remote towns of Orue and Okau in the Kunene region. 

Declared a State of Emergency by Namibian President Hage Geingob in May, the ongoing drought is devastating communities throughout the south African nation. To date over 60,000 head of cattle have died due to lack of water in a region where people’s livelihood is dependent on herded animals. The lack of water has forced families and livestock to move closer and closer to operable hand-pump wells, though those too have become increasingly rare as hand-pumps have broken and become inoperable over time. USAID provided a grant to the Namibian Red Cross that funded the repairs of some wells, however, many remote communities were not included, including villages where One Pencil Project operates.

One Pencil Project executive director Helen Davis, PhD, is a Harvard researcher who co-founded One Pencil Project with Salt Lake City attorney Jason Leiser while she was working at the University of Utah.  From Namibia, Dr. Davis communicated the situation to Leiser and other members of the One Pencil Project Board which was able to quickly raise the donations needed to fund the well repairs, which were completed October 17. As a result, a collective population of roughly 500, who lacked reliable, clean water, now have wells that are fully functioning.