News

For nearly two months, water did not flow from the city lines throughout the town of Winneba. Turning on a faucet and  realizing there is no water – is not uncommon in the town, but usually the water may go off for a few hours at a time; that’s when water tanks refill and families can fill their buckets when it is flowing. Many weeks without water, however, makes life that much harder. Children spend extra time fetching water in the mornings and evenings, including students at Challenging Heights School.

Twenty four students board at CHS for much of the school year, most of them are a part of the Junior High School Class 3, preparing for their Basic Education Certification Exam. Each afternoon, the group walked 15-20 minutes from the school to the Challenging Heights office to fill dozens of buckets and gallon jugs with fresh water from the newly dug bore hole. While the rest of the town needed water from buckets, Challenging Heights staff and some beneficiaries in the area received fresh water from deep underground from faucets as usual.

The decision to dig the bore hole came after water bills skyrocketed at the office, compounded with inconsistent water flowing from city lines. The cost of the drilling is something that is expected to be paid off within four or five months of its use (and not paying city water bills), plus the benefit of having water that flows regardless of the overall water system has already paid dividends in convenience and fulfilling needs.

Since not all children can afford pure water to drink or use for washing, they rely on water that flows from the city. When children do not have access to water at home, they are more likely to spend their time fetching water for family members than doing school work, and may not even be able to get to school on time, if at all. Having to walk and fill buckets for washing and bathing means time taken away from serious studying for the students boarding at CHS.

Even as the water flows in Winneba today, we know that this will not always be the case and that our children will be filling buckets to carry back to wash often into the future. A bore hole dug at the school will alleviate time and energy spent on something that should come as a natural right for our children: easy access to clean water.

Your support will go a long way in supplying water to Challenging Heights School for years to come.