Every time you turn on the tap above the sink in your kitchen or bathroom, please think of the women of Gouna.
Every day they have to walk 9 kilometers to the nearest water source and then come back again bringing water for their children and the elders. Each day they carry water in big, heavy containers striving to make the best use of the effort. Some of them are lucky to own a donkey, but all have to cope with the heat exceeding 30° Celsius, not to mention all other dangers lurking along the way.
Together we can make the change for them and their children.
Every day women of Gouna have to walk 9 kilometers to the nearest source and then come back again bringing water for their children and the elders. Each day they carry water in big, heavy containers striving to make the best use of the effort. Some of them are lucky to own a donkey, but all have to cope with the heat exceeding 30° Celsius, not to mention all other dangers lurking along the way.
Together we can make the change for them and their children. We want to let tchem have a water well in their village so their life doesn’t have to be organizaed around walking for water and carrying it day by day.
The cost of drilling a water well and installing a sustainable solar powered pump is approximately 16 thousand euro.
Thanks to the initiative by a local resident, Ehene Gado, we have identified a Nigerien NGO called ONG WAN-NAWANAN and teamed up with the Mayor to raise money for the water well.
Mano Aboutali of the ONG WAN-NAWANAN has commissioned the design with the professional company, offered a cost estimate and arranged the permit with local Mayor. A traditional water well is out of question as the ground water is over 100 meters deep and a conventional water well would quickly be either contaminated or buried with sand. Also drawing water would be difficult. That’s why we have opted for a modern, closed-up installation.
The plot for well has been indicated by the commune and granted a building permit.
Local experts Zoubeirou Harrouna DDH/A and Aboubacar Alkasoum SP-COFODEP have conducted the hydrologic and socio-economic evaluation of the project presented to the authorities of the commune.
Despite being the 7th largest supplier of uranium in the world, Niger also ranks 7th among the world’s poorest countries. In Niger, where approximately 10 million people (41% of the total population) live in extreme poverty, 40% of the state budget consists of foreign aid.
As part of the West Africa Sahel region, Niger has a hot climate characterized by very high temperatures year-round; a long, intense dry season from October–May; and a brief, irregular rainy season linked to the West African monsoon. Mean annual temperatures range 21.9°–36.4°C, with substantially cooler temperatures in the mountainous regions. Annual rainfall varies from year to year, but generally is lower in the north (100–200 mm) than in the south (500–600 mm) and is limited to the summer months of June–September. The length of the rainy season ranges from one to two months in the north and four to five months in the south.
Niger’s economy is based largely on subsistence crops, livestock, and some of the world’s largest uranium deposits. Drought cycles, desertification, a 3.4% population growth rate and the drop in world demand for uranium have undercut an already marginal economy. Traditional subsistence farming, herding, small trading, and informal markets dominate an economy that generates few formal sector jobs. Between 1988 and 1995 28% to 30% of the total economy of Niger was in the unregulated informal sector, including small and even large scale rural and urban production, transport and services.
Every day women of Gouna have to walk 9 kilometers to the nearest source and then come back again bringing water for their children and the elders. Each day they carry water in big, heavy containers striving to make the best use of the effort. Some of them are lucky to own a donkey, but all have to cope with the heat exceeding 30° Celsius, not to mention all other dangers lurking along the way.
Gouna is the tiny village, part of the Ingall commune in the Agadez Region, Tchirozerine Department of northeast Niger, with a year-round population of less than 500. It is an oasis in a semi-desert zone that forms the gateway to the Sahara. It is a conglomeration of mud houses, whose gardens, in contrast to the barren landscape in which the town is set, are filled with fruit trees and vegetable patches.
It is also known for salt flats, Ingall is the gathering point for the Cure Salee festival of Tuareg and Wodaabe pastoralists to celebrate the end of the rainy season each September. During the festival, Ingall’s population grows to several thousand nomads, officials, and tourists.
The rural commune of Ingall is located between the 20th and 16th parallels in the Saharan part of Niger. It is part of the Agadez region. Its capital, Ingall, is located 160 km west of the city of Agadez. It inherited the borders of the former Administrative Post of the same name and covers an area of 50,000 km². Its total population is 24,792 residents (according to alternative sources as many as 47,170 citizens were listed in 2011) distributed in eight administrative villages and 105 Akal or home territories recognized and validated by the Municipal Council on October 9, 2005, i.e. a density of 0.68 hts per km². The duration of the rainy season varies from 2 to 3 months depending on the season. Precipitation rarely exceeds 250 mm per year. The location for the water well has been indicated by Malik Ebrouk, the Mayor of Ingall commune.
The commune of Ingall includes eight administrative villages and 105 Akal where they are home to two nomadic groups, notably the Tuareg group of kel Fadey which has 27 tribes or fractions of tribes (the fraction of tribe designates in our case a splitting into several families which form themselves into tribes, often keeping the same name as the mother tribe: for example the Bikraoua tribe which is subdivided into Bikraoua I, Bikraoua II). It is the oldest group at the municipal level. There is also the Bikaraoua Fulani group created in 2002 and which totals 19 tribes or fractions of tribes. In addition to these groups, there are 52 ungrouped tribes or fractions of tribes. The ungrouped tribes depend on the Sultanate of Agadez. It should be noted that at the head of each tribe or fraction of a tribe, there is a tribal chief.
The inventory of hydraulic infrastructures in the commune of Ingall (population of ca. 47 thousand people):
- 625 traditional wells
- 77 community cemented wells
- 16 private cemented wells
- 03 wells equipped with solar system
- One (1) borehole
- One (1) equipped borehole
- Two unequipped boreholes
- 29 wells equipped with human-powered pumps, 4 of which are functional
- 47 artesian boreholes including 11 non-functional
Source: ONG WAN NANAWAN, CONSTRUCTION DES CLASSES EQUIPEES ET LATRINES, D’UNE STATION DE POMPAGE (FORAGE)
Thanks to the initiative by a local resident, Ehene Gado, we have identified a Nigerien NGO called ONG WAN-NAWANAN and teamed up with the Mayor. The plot for well has been indicated by the commune and granted a building permit. Our role is to raise money for the water well – with your generous help.
Mano Aboutali of the ONG WAN-NAWANAN has commissioned the design with the professional company, offered a cost estimate and arranged the permit with local Mayor. A traditional water well is out of question as the ground water is over 100 meters deep and a conventional water well would quickly be either contaminated or buried with sand. Also drawing water would be difficult. That’s why we have opted for a modern, closed-up installation.
Local experts Zoubeirou Harrouna DDH/A and Aboubacar Alkasoum SP-COFODEP have conducted the hydrologic and socio-economic evaluation of the project presented to the authorities of the commune.
Upon collecting the funds needed the work will be commissioned by the operational NGO with the public service of the State Of Niger (part one) and by a specialized company (part two) ENIREP: Nigerien Company for the Realization of Pastoral Water Points in the field.
According to the design the pump will be powered by the solar energy.
In the photographs: a typical solar powered well popular in Niger, which is also what we are going to have installed in Gouna
The cost of the installation was estimated in mid 2023 for CFA* 8.7 m which is an equivalent of EUR ca. 13.4 thousand. This is the amount that is necessary to perform all the work in the filed. We are asking however for EUR 16 thousand to cover the cost of the fundraising initiative: this website, administration, gifts for the donors.
However once we collect EUR 13.4 thousand we will commence the works anyway.
*) CFA stands for CFA franc, backed by the French treasury and pegged to the euro, refers to both the Central African CFA franc (XAF) and the West African CFA franc (XOF), and is accepted in 14 member countries. CFA stands for Communauté financière d’Afrique or African Financial Community. In 2019, the CFA Franc was officially renamed the ”Eco”.
The fund raising initiative is formally held by Fundacja CHCEmisie, a charitable foundation established in Poland in 2007 helping people at risk of social exclusion.
The overseeing of the drilling, building process and installation rests with a local non-governmental organization ONG WAN-NAWANAN established in 2014 and represented by Mano Aboutali.
The commune of Ingall is represented by the Mayor who issued the authorisation to the investment.
The rural commune of Ingall is located between the 20th and 16th parallels in the Saharan part of Niger. It is part of the Agadez region. Its capital, Ingall, is located 160 km west of the city of Agadez. It inherited the borders of the former Administrative Post of the same name and covers an area of 50,000 km². Its total population is 24,792 residents (according to alternative sources as many as 47,170 citizens were listed in 2011) distributed in eight administrative villages and 105 Akal or home territories recognized and validated by the Municipal Council on October 9, 2005, i.e. a density of 0.68 hts per km².
The duration of the rainy season varies from 2 to 3 months depending on the season. Precipitation rarely exceeds 250 mm per year. The location for the water well has been indicated by Malik Ebrouk, the Mayor of Ingall commune.
The commune of Ingall includes eight administrative villages and 105 Akal where they are home to two nomadic groups, notably the Tuareg group of kel Fadey which has 27 tribes or fractions of tribes (the fraction of tribe designates in our case a splitting into several families which form themselves into tribes, often keeping the same name as the mother tribe: for example the Bikraoua tribe which is subdivided into Bikraoua I, Bikraoua II). It is the oldest group at the municipal level. There is also the Bikaraoua Fulani group created in 2002 and which totals 19 tribes or fractions of tribes. In addition to these groups, there are 52 ungrouped tribes or fractions of tribes. The ungrouped tribes depend on the Sultanate of Agadez. It should be noted that at the head of each tribe or fraction of a tribe, there is a tribal chief.
We are determined to drill the well which would change the life of people of Gouna for the better, especially it will help improve the lives of women and children.
Please use the link below to donate any amount you feel you can afford (please add 5 EUR for postage of the „thank you” gift we would like to send you if you donate 20 EUR or more). We kindly ask you to provide us with your address, which we will use in order to ship a gift for you as a token of our gratitude. You can take a look at the choice of gifts on our „thank you” page.
FOR A DONATION OF EUR 20
WE OFFER
– personalized thank you note on our fb
FOR A DONATION OF EUR 50
WE OFFER
– traditional Nigerien piece of jewellery made by the Nomads of Sahara
– Copy of „Humans of Boom” (pdf)
The images shown are for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product.
FOR A DONATION OF EUR 100
WE OFFER
– traditional Nigerien piece of jewellery made by the Nomads of Sahara
– „Humans of Boom” book (hard copy)
The images shown are for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product.
The book contains wisdom shared with us by people we met during the Boom Festival in Portugal in the summer of 2023. The festival makes up a gathering of a colorful and joyous psytrance tribe. A festival, during which you will not see a single piece of trash on the ground, not a trace of an advertising or commercial content from sponsors as there are none of them and no slightest sign of aggression or harshness among the participants. Instead, you are overwhelmed with an unspeakable amount of love and good vibes. All of this unfolds amongst beautiful landscape of Castelo Branco region in eastern Portugal which we could call half desert if not for a magnificent lake making home to generous sun setting in its waves every evening to cheering and applause of the crowds. The key part of the experience is music performed at various stages – if you are not that much into psytrance you can enjoy ethnic music or funky as well.
Among the 39,452 people that were there in the summer of 2023, there was also Ehene Gado, selling his beautiful, ethnic jewellery brought from Niger. One thing led to another and eventually we decided to try to help him secure a reliable and sustainable source of potable water for his family and all villagers of Gouna.
It was Ehene Gado, who – when asked what was the most important thing in life – said: water! This is how he inspired us to take up the initiative to drill a well for the residents of Gouna. He is 29 years old, married, father of beautiful, smart children.
It was him, who explained us that the closest location where water was available to the community where he lived, was 9 km away. Women from Ehene’s village use any containers they have to bring water to their children walking back and forth every day.
Over dozens of e-mails and text messages we gradually started to develop a project to drill a well for the community living in a tiny village of Gouna in the Ingall commune in the Agadez region.
Some people may ask how come Ehene was able to travel all the way to Portugal. The truth is he is a very brave and resourceful young man who lost all his cattle and goats a few years back as the animals fell victims to the draught. So he remade himself into a seller of unique craft products from his country.
Soon we learned that he was also very disciplined and consistent in his determination to make things happen. He e-mailed us or texted almost every day or keep an eye on the developments. Please keep the figers crossed that he succeeds in bringing water to his fellow villagers.
The book „Humans of Boom” is an effort to preserve memories of beautiful people we met there. It contains portraits of people who we came across and their thoughts on what’s most important in life. Initially we printed only some 100 copies for our friends and clients as a Christmas gift. Now we would like to share the book with you.
The ‘water for gouna’ initiative is a public-private partnership with CHCEmisie Foundation, ONG Wan-NAWANAN and the Local Government of the Ingall commune as key institutional partners and Ehene Gado as a private Gouna citizen providing liaison with the local authorities and Pawel and Zofia Kwiatkowscy who initiated the project and also represent CHCEmisie Foundation.
CHCEmisie Foundation was established in 2007 and for many years since then, we have been supporting children and young people in difficult life situations, at risk of social exclusion, mainly from the Child and Family Support Center in Kolaczkowo near Wrzesnia (western Poland), but also from other orphanages.
One of our sponsors was Mr. Łukasz Fabianski, a famous football player, currently a goalkeeper for Premier League club West Ham United, who also played for the Poland national team from 2006 until his retirement from international duties in 2021, who together with his wife Mrs. Anna Fabianska have continuously and generously supported sport activities of the youth in Kołaczkowo.
We also have supported dysfunctional families and young people at risk of social exclusion who become independent in adulthood.
Assisting the youth into their transition towards adulthood
Since the beginning of 2020, thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, with majority of funding coming from Volkswagen, we have been running co called training apartments – transitional places for young people, upon reaching age of majority, leaving the child care center and learning the adult life on their own. We wanted to provide them with a soft landing in the wild. We have financed studies in extramural schools, vocational courses and driving schools.
What however many people in our home town Poznań would recognize us for, would be many charitable concerts which we produced to raise money. We have been organizing these events in Poznań at least once a year since 2012. We have invariably cared for the highest artistic level of these musical events, which is guaranteed by a select group of performers: in previous years, the most outstanding pianists and violinists of the young generation, as well as international stars of the classical music such as Yuliana Avdeeva, Agata Szymczewska, Michał Bracha, Jakub Jakowicz, Jacek Kortus. For years, the concert has been hosted by Daniel Szpilman, the grandson of the legendary pianist immortalized in Roman Polanski’s film.
Due to changes in the Polish legal regulations, large orphanages are being transformed into smaller facilities, if possible – family run. The care center in Kołaczkowo also completely changed its profile and location. With the conclusion of assistance program for young individuals leaving this facility into adulthood, we started new projects, involving the Foundation in important actions resulting from the challenges of a changing world.
Helping refugees in Poland
From the very beginning of the war in Ukraine, in cooperation with a group of activists from Puszczykowo near Poznań, and also independently, we were involved in helping refugees. Our help mainly extended to children and women. Thanks to the generosity of donors, we were able to contribute to providing children with lunches, school supplies and excursions. The money from collections was also spent on cultural events and kindergarten fees.
At the same time, in cooperation with other friendly organizations, we collected money for a sheltered apartment for a family of refugees from Afghanistan who managed to get to Poland on the last Polish military transport before Kabul was taken by the Talibans. Mr. and Mrs. Shah and their children, thanks to the enormous commitment of the local government of the city of Poznań and many friends, found a safe future and stable living conditions in our city.
Now, together with you, we want to take care of the most basic thing in life – water: we want it to flow in a living stream in the village of Gouna in Niger.
The NGO Wan-NAWANAN, this historical name of the NGO was conceived following the name of a valley of Tamaya. The organization with headquarters in Tahoua, operates in environment, education, humanitarian assistance to vulnerable and needy people by creating income-generating activities and local development through sustainable achievements in all regions of Niger.
Wan NAWANAN has already carried out sustainable actions such as the half-moons to fight against desertification and land degradation, development projects such as humanitarian assistance in Assamaka, Education Project for the children of Sahel in emergency situation in the areas of Tillia and Talemcess, showing that NGO Wa-Nawanan has no borders and intervenes where necessary.
„We work with the largest donors such as ECHO, or the European Union, WFP, UNHCR and we have the legal authorization to carry out activities throughout Niger. The main thing for the NGO Wan NAWANAN is to be able to relieve the populations because as we say in our adage “Amane Imane” which means “water is life,” says Mano Aboutali.
The local mayor has approved our initiative and indicated a communal plot as the site of the water well.
The Monitoring Committee has been created locally by the beneficiaries of the initiative in order to take charge of the maintenance, any repairs or technical problems
Ehene Gado is 31 years old. He now makes living as a craftsman, selling jewelry at festivals, however he was a cattle and goat breeder until 2011, when practically all his animals died because of drought. Every e-mail he sends, begins with the question whether us and our family are doing well.
We bumped into one another in high school in 1982 and for the most of the time since then we have been together. We feel priviledged to have met and now we happily continue to find each other’s company inspiring and fun. Four years ago, we escaped from safe jobs in big multinational companies where we had spent around 20 years and we now run a creative communications consultancy, FlowerPower, specialising mainly in sustainable development.
Also, many years ago, together with our good friends we have established a foundation called Fundacja CHCEmisie which very loosely translated means „I am eager to do more”.
