The Well That Changed Palenga
When we first visited Palenga in 2023, the village had no clean water source within a three-hour walk. Women and girls -- always women and girls -- left before dawn to collect water from a shared, unprotected spring that served four other villages. The water was brown. Children were sick constantly. School attendance was below 40%.
We did not rush in with a solution. For six months, we met with village leaders, the local council, and community health workers. We listened. We learned that three previous NGOs had promised wells and never followed through.1 Trust was not just low -- it was gone.
"We stopped promising. We started showing up. Every week, same day, same time. Eventually, they believed we were different."
The hydrogeological survey was completed in November 2025. Drilling began in February 2026 and hit clean water at 62 meters. The flow rate exceeds the minimum standard -- enough for all 800 residents and the 200 people from neighboring villages who will also use the well.
Aciro Grace, a mother of four, stood at the well on its first day. Her daughters, aged 8 and 11, were in school for the first time in weeks. "My children no longer miss school for water," she said. "God sent people who cared. We are not forgotten."