
Four years ago, Delilah made her first visit to Ghana. Upon discovering that most of the refugees had very little access to fresh water, she made the provision of water Point Hope's number one priority. We encountered many obstacles on our road to success, but in May of 2008, Delilah's dream of bringing fresh water to the entire camp showed its first signs of becoming reality; in addition to building water towers and running pipes, we had managed to get two fetching stations up and running. Two stations aren't nearly enough, however, so we have spent much of the past year working on building out more. Now, less than a year after drawing the first drop from the first spigot, we've managed to install more than 15 new fetching stations, bringing fresh water to more than 125 acres of the camp.Recently, Delilah and several board members traveled to Buduburam, to witness first-hand the difference that the water is making. The changes we saw were dramatic and pronounced. People who used to only be able to bathe once a day -- or even only once a week -- proudly told us that they are now able to bathe as much as three times a day, if needed. Mothers and fathers gushed about how much the extra money (which used to be spent purchasing water from street vendors) has helped them provide other necessities for their families, such as food and medicine. The medical professionals at the camp relayed to us that the refugees in the area serviced by our pumps have been generally healthier, and shown less incidence of illness than usual. In summary, the availability of water has improved the refugees's lives in every sense possible.
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