In Honor of Mother’s Day
I recently watched a segment of the HBO show Vice about the Fat Farms of Mauritania. In it, a reporter traveled to the West African country to profile the ancient practice of brutally force-feeding young girls to fatten them up to make them more attractive for marriage. In their culture, a fat woman is seen […]
Sister Sidonia Aman Tong
Camboni Primary and Secondary School in Aweil Town was the location of one of the wells we recently repaired. The school was constructed by the Catholic Church, in the 1970s, but they are no longer funding it and the government has taken over. While we were there observing the work, I met the principal, Antonia […]
Climate Change and Disaster Preparedness
Climate Change and Disaster Preparedness are big words around this region these days. Disaster preparedness refers to unpredictable events like drought and floods. I experienced it during the dry season last winter when the schools in Northern Bahr el Ghazal closed down so families could migrate to swamps in search of water. But this time I saw the opposite side of the disaster. Annually, 100,000 […]
International Day of the Girl
Today is the first-ever International Day of the Girl. Even here in Uganda we are hearing that the Empire State Building in New York City is being lit up pink in tribute. It’s so encouraging that the global community is taking on this important issue! Today UNICEF South Sudan issued a call to action against child marriage, one of the major […]
Real Stories from one of our Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) Programs
While doing our project follow up in Uganda, I was thrilled to see how well our Village Savings and Loan Associations were coming along. We now have 13 groups, which each consist of 30 members. The Village Savings and Loan Association Program or VSLA is a very-structured system of saving, borrowing and lending of money […]
Changing attitudes about female education
The drilling team in South Sudan was starting to make progress, and once we were sure they had reached a place where they could be left to continue, we headed back to Uganda to check on some of our projects there. First stop was Alela Modern Primary School, near Lira, where we had perviously constructed one […]
Northern Bahr el Ghazal – the poorest area in South Sudan
Northern Bahr el Ghazal (NBeG) is reported to be the poorest area of South Sudan… and I believe it. The state has a severe lack of infrastructure. Because of the war, and environmental conditions such as regular flooding and droughts, there has been little progress in terms of development. We work closely with many partners […]
When you educate a girl you educate the nation
While having lunch in the South Sudan town of Aweil recently, we had the pleasure of meeting the director for a German NGO, GIZ. He struck up a conversation and when he learned we were helping to provide water in the region, asked if we’d be able to meet with him about something after lunch. Apparently, their […]
Back to the field with travel upgrades
Drop in the Bucket started off the New Year on a great note. We received a wonderful Christmas present this year from UNICEF in South Sudan. They donated two Land Cruisers to assist our field teams in our work. This is a tremendous upgrade for us from old beat down vehicles we’ve been getting around […]
Some weeks are easier than others
Finding something to eat in Northern Bahr El Ghazal is always very challenging. On our initial trip in July, we pretty much ate beans and rice at every meal. This time we decided to go to the market and select our own food. We then convinced the hotel cooks to prepare the meals for us […]