Project #38 | Wells in Cameroon

Our partnership with Breaking Ground

The goal of our partner project with Breaking Ground was to improve the health of the community as it is related to water born diseases. This was be accomplished through constructing a well to provide potable water in conjunction with a water treatment education program. This project not only improved the community’s health but built the community’s confidence to envision, organize and implement future development projects.

In the community of Baleveng in west Cameroon there was an urgent need for improved drinking water and for a health education program. All 3,500 members of the community gathered their water from a small spring they had to wade into to fetch water. In 2011 alone there were 650 documented cases of water-related diseases in the area. By bringing clean water to this area, we will be able to reduce these diseases.

This matching grant enabled Breaking Ground and the community of Baleveng to build an electric pump and water reservoir that will impact 3,500 people in the community. Breaking Ground also worked with the Research Institute for Development and local health centers to organize an educational program; this program taught basic hygiene as well as water treatment techniques to comprehensively maximize the impact of the project.