The African Well Fund (AWF) is a registered 501(c) 3 non profit organization dedicated to raising funds to build and maintain water projects in Sub-Saharan Africa. The AWF concurs with the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights that ‘access to clean water is a basic universal right’. The AWF was founded in 2002 by a group of U2 fans inspired by Bono’s 2002 trip to Africa with then Secretary of US Treasury, Paul O’Neill. These fans were convinced that raising money to build a well was an easy goal to achieve.

The AWF partners with Africare, a charitable US organization that has delivered over $450 million assistance to 35 countries in Africa since its’ founding in 1970. Partnering with Africare allows the donations to the AWF to go directly to Africare’s village water supply projects. As Africare has offices in many African countries they can provide feedback on the wells and water projects built. For more info on Africare visit www.africare.org

AWF is operated entirely by volunteers and the administrative costs are minimal, using income from merchandise sales and online commission partnerships to help cover these expenses.

A testimonial from Uganda…
AWF funded the construction of 4 springs, 3 spring tanks and 7 shallow wells in Uganda in 2003. This served 5,660 people in the Ntungamo district of Uganda. This is what Mzee Kampororo said at the opening of the Kikoni shallow well site in Ntungamo Town Council, Uganda: “I… have seen generations pass but have never got access to such clean source of water, near enough for me and my old wife, who can no longer even walk from the house without support…Thanks for this selfless gift. This water has breathed fresh life in me”.

Some quick facts on why we decided to fundraise for the AWF:

• Over 1.1 billion people lack access to clean water (UN), about ¼ of the world’s population
• More than half of Africa’s people lack access to safe drinking water (UN)
• Of all the renewable water available in Africa each year only 4% is used (Africare)
• A person needs 5L of water daily for drinking and cooking, and a further 25L to stay clean (Pacific Institute)
• In developing countries 1 person uses an average of 10L water daily (www.whmet.org), we use this in a single flush of a toilet!
• Every day, 34000 people die from water borne diseases secondary to unclean drinking water (UN)
• Over 80% of disease in developing countries is related to poor drinking water and sanitation (WHO)
• In the past 10yrs, diarrhoea has killed more children than all the people lost to armed conflict since WWII (Water Aid)
• The average distance a woman walks to collect clean water in Asia and Africa is 6km (www.whmet.org). In some parts of Africa the task can take up as much as 8hrs of the day (www.unfpa.org)
• The weight of water a woman in Asia and Africa carries on their heads is 20kg, the maximum baggage weight allowed by airlines (www.whmet.org)