Beautful scenery but no reliable water
Near Clarens in the Free State, set among rolling hills, is a small farm school, which up until now had no reliable water. Sometimes the children used to leave school early because they were thirsty. Though schools in South Africa normally give the children a meal, without reliable clean water they were unable to cook meals for them, resulting in the children going hungry. There was a water delivery, but that could take up to two...
Limpopo & Mpumalanga Maintenance trip 2015
In July we went to Limpopo and Mpumalanga and carried out maintenance work on 27 of our PlayPumps. We were able to do this thanks to generous donations from many donors. Like a car, the PlayPumps do need to be maintained as cylinders can become worn, pipes can develop leaks and taps and soil crete need repairing. Any trip into rural areas of South Africa is expensive because of the cost of petrol, accommodation and labour, but thanks...
Let the water continue to flow
In March, thanks to continued support from wonderful donors, we maintained 29 PlayPumps in KwaZulu Natal. Out of this group was Mdlenevu Primary School, which was installed 14 years ago in 2001 and apart from replacing the forcehead, changing the threaded rod and patching the soil crete it was still working and the kids continue to play happily on it. One of the other sites was a community PlayPump near Vryhead which was...
Free State site visit
In February 2015, we visited the Free State Province of South Africa, and went to 11 of our PlayPump sites. With the temperature hitting 42 degrees Celsius on most days we were expecting to find the children lethargic. But we were amazed to arrive at school after school and find the children playing happily on their PlayPumps during the break. One principal told us “they are no longer fighting” they are now playing...
Farm School gets PlayPump
A small farm school in the Free State Province has been struggling with lack of water for many years. They currently have 56 kids, but another 50 kids have registered for 2015, making their lack of water problem even more concerning. They started a small vegetable patch to help feed the kids, but with no reliable water they could only grow a few vegetables. Now with a PlayPump they can grow more vegetables, giving the kids a healthy...
Northern Cape Installations
In July of this year we installed two PlayPumps in the Northern Cape When we returned last week and visited Manyeding Primary School we could hardly see the PlayPump head because of the number of kids playing on it and others were running from their classrooms to join in the fun. Manyeding Primary Schools has 351 kids and 14 educators. Before the PlayPump they had a windmill but this had been broken for a long time causing the...
