Families: 32 + 2 additional villages
Water Committee: 5 men and 5 women

The Lomwe community of Madm’dala has lived on this land since the 1980s, but families had never had clean water. Before the well, women walked to the Mvumba River, where it could take two hours to collect just one bucket. On a good day, they might bring home three buckets after spending hours fetching water.

The burden was especially difficult during the dry season, when women had to travel even farther. The long absences caused tension in marriages, and families struggled to manage their daily responsibilities. Residents also suffered from cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, bilharzia, and scabies.

Getting medical care meant a three-hour walk to Namkumba Health Center. Families often made the trip several times a month and spent an average of MK 50,000 on medicine, plus transportation costs when they could afford a motorbike. To cover these expenses, people sold charcoal and worked on their farms, sometimes leaving too little money to buy food.

Now, families can collect eight to ten buckets of water a day. They can bathe three times a day, wash everything, and spend more time growing gardens and molding bricks. Money that once went toward treating water-related illnesses can now go toward food, helping families through seasons when their harvests are not enough.

Children are benefiting, too. Before the well, some struggled to attend school. Now, residents say children arrive before their teachers. Families are happier, and the tension that once came from long hours spent fetching water has eased.

For years, residents said, organizations and politicians promised to bring water but never returned. “WWFA is the only charity who has kept their promise to us,” they shared. The community was so excited to finally receive visitors and a well that one resident exclaimed, “We should sleep next to the well.”

After generations without clean water, Madm’dala finally has a reliable source close to home. As residents put it, “It is a miracle.”