Since 2014, The Bimiri Foundation has worked with the village of Bimiri, Nepal, to improve the lives of the men, women and children who live there.
Our aim is to provide clean, accessible drinking water to this village – starting by fundraising the money required to do so.
Currently, the women and girls of Bimiri must carry water back and forth from the nearest water source, 1.5 kms away. Girls as young as ten make this journey, carrying up to 20 litres of water, several times a day.
Thanks to the generosity of individual donations, as well as a small sum from the Nepali government, we’ve already laid over 1.8 kms of water pipeline, and dug out over 60,000 square foot of space where our reserve tanks will soon reside.
Yet despite this, and despite having a village full of motivated, skilled and hard working people on the ground in Nepal, the project has unfortunately been moving more slowly than we would like. We are able to progress only when funds have been raised for it. Building a full pipeline, and one in such rugged terrain as rural Nepal, does not come cheap.
We’re now ardently fundraising for the next phase of the project. An area must be excavated to house the first water reserve tank, before digging down to submerge the pump that will ultimately carry the water into people’s home – via a filtration system to ensure its sanitation.
Along with building the pump house and running power lines from it to the village, this phase is estimated at around 15,000 (15 lakh) Nepali rupees, or ~£10,000.
While completing this will mark a huge landmark and success for The Bimiri Foundation, and for the villagers of Bimiri, our work will not end there. Our final phase involves building a final reserve tank – built at the highest point of the surrounding area. This means water can be gravity fed down to other villages in the area, extending the benefit beyond Bimiri and to its neighbours. This most expensive part of the project overall, this is estimated at a total cost of £17,000.
We’re still a long way off from achieving this. But we can, and will, get there.
With your continued support we can end the daily burden of hundreds of women and girls – as young as ten years of age – carrying the water they need to drink, cook and clean with everyday, up to 50kg per trip, 1.5 kms, three times a day.
This should not be happening anywhere in the world in 2019. Soon, thanks to your generosity, this won’t be happening in Bimiri.
Small change for big change. Every little helps.