A non-profit organization providing water wells and sanitation systems to schools in Africa

Thanks to the cast and crew of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (season 6), Drop in the Bucket just completed its first well in Besseye, Chad. The well was built in collaboration with STELAS which is an Arizona based charity that is building schools and medical centers in Chad. Besseye is a large community of over 7,000 people and the well at the new Primary School will provide water to a lot of people who before could only get water from ponds of stagnant water and from what are locally referred to as traditional wells.


A traditional well is established when the local people know that there is a naturally occurring spring or stream of water just below the surface of the ground. They dig down a few feet until they are able to stick containers in the water and scoop it out. This water is generally very polluted and often contains parasites that can cause blindness and disease. What is shocking is that the locals often are very aware of this, but have no real choice as without water they will die.

The new water well will break this dependency on traditional wells for the people living around it, as now for the first time they finally have a source of clean, disease and parasite free water.