RWANDA WATER PROJECT
The Rotary Club of Asheville South and its partners plan to bring irrigation water to subsistence farmers and family gardeners in eight villages of Western Rwanda.
Because farmers can grow only during the rainy season, they are limited in their ability to feed their families and derive income. They live in poverty and a perpetual food deficit.
Those that attempt to farm year-round send women and children on the back-breaking three km trip to fetch water from a mountain source. Of course, while doing this, the children are not in school.
This project aims to change all of that by providing piped water from the source to ten storage tanks and irrigation feeder lines covering eight villages and 7,000 people.
We can get water-carrying children back to school, address rampant food insecurity, and help raise annual incomes in the area.
We have a grant from Rotary International and the full support of the farming community and local officials.
We need to raise money to obtain the grant funds to complete the project. We will use this money to lay pipes, install tanks and irrigation lines and train villagers in the use of the system.
Please donate online: Donate to Rwanda Water Project
This video provides a look into what is happening right now, in August 2023, with our Rwandan project. So far, we have employed 120 local villagers. They are making money that, in some cases, will pay school fees for children going back to school rather than transporting water from the mountain to the farms.