Families: 76
Water Committee: 4 men and 6 women

Chikhombo Village met us with a sense of quiet pride. Chief Frederick Marison stood with the newly elected water committee—women in leadership for the first time. “This is wonderful,” one of them said. “We have never been in a committee.” After CBM training, they spoke with confidence: “We can take the entire well apart and put it back together.”

The families here have lived on this land for generations, yet this is their first clean water source. Until now, everything depended on the Diangola River. The women woke at 1 a.m. and returned at dawn with a single bucket. The stream was covered in moss and full of frogs; people used it for all kinds of things, and sickness followed. Cholera and diarrhea swept through the village four or five times a month. They remember carrying the sick to the clinic. They remember the years when people died.

Today, they describe the difference as “huge.”
 No illnesses. No more moss. Three 40-liter buckets a day. Bathing twice daily—something they never imagined before.

Life inside the home has shifted too. Men no longer question why their wives are gone for hours. Arguments have faded. Gossip that used to rise during long waits for water has quieted. With more time and better health, families are tending gardens of pumpkin leaves and caring for one another in ways they couldn’t before. “We believe in living together in unity,” said Erida. “But we weren’t helping one another because we were always quarreling.”

School tells the rest of the story. Children had been waking at 1 a.m. to fetch water, falling asleep in class, or being sent home for dirty clothes. Now, they arrive clean and on time. Every child is in school. Girls dream freely: Memory wants to be a nurse, Sylvia a teacher, Evelyne a doctor, Bridget a driver, and others follow with hopes just as bright.

At the end of the dedication, the chief spoke simply:
 “We are thankful. This well has changed our lives, and we know there are more people out there in need.”

Chikhombo is no longer defined by its river. It is defined by its possibilities.