BFNDA President’s Charity 2025 to 2028
THE PELENDE WATER PROJECT – WATER FOR LIFE
While I was looking for a suitable charity to support, I was sent a short video entitled The Pelende Water Project and, just like Lorraine, I realised how very important having access to clean water is to all of us. Water is Life; we cannot live without it and, therefore, my charity follows on from Lorraine’s charity of the last three years.
The more I looked at the video the more I wanted to find out about the Project. So like our grandchildren – I Googled it!
And there it was! Just like page after page of an Encyclopaedia Britannica! More information than I could digest in one sitting. I felt excited about what I read and wanted to know more.
I discovered there is an enormous project that has been in existence for a number of years that aims to install banks of solar panels in various remote villages in Congo to generate electricity. This is known as the Photovoltaic Project. This power is used to pump water through a purification system thus providing clean, potable water to the hospitals, clinics and schools in the various villages such as Kitenda and Pelende. Having electricity means having lighting after 6 o’clock in the evening so school classes can continue. It is essential that the people whose homes are in the village know and understand how the systems work and how to repair the equipment when necessary. Therefore a good education is required to enable them to take full ownership of and full responsibility for the maintenance of this life giving Project.
As the Sisters say on their website it’s as a result of all of the generous contributions they receive from people like us that enables them to continue their mission of educating and taking a stand with those in poverty – especially women and children!
Federation Charity 2021-2024
Water Purification
The African Well Project in Kitenda, Congo.
The African Photovoltian Project (APP) produces electricity, purifies water and provides internet technology and has provided access to secure water in 16 countries in Africa in the last 20 years.
Water is presenting a global challenge for survival. The challenges come from both rising sea levels and raging floods but in the Congo the water issue is the LACK of water. They need to dig deep to secure access to the deep water under the soil.
The project we are supporting is in Kitenda Congo. The sisters and workmen have worked hard to complete the first part of the project which has been completed and activated. The first part was providing one spout for water with piping, pumps and filters powered by solar energy to purify the water which comes under the soil from the river.
There is always more to do. Sr Lorraine Connell has been in contact with the engineer and the details of the future project which is very detailed and expensive. They want to develop and install a water supply for community access and to community members, women, children and families living in poverty. They would welcome our participation.
Federation Charity 2018-2021
The original Charity project for the three years 2018-2021 was to provide funding for the building of a high school for girls in a village in Ogwa, Nigeria. Unfortunately, at the beginning of 2021, owing to vandalism by local youth and because of a dispute about the ownership of the land, this project had to be abandoned. The Sisters in Nigeria, however, had recently taken over the management of a primary school in Mgbowo, which had previously been established by the Norbertine Fathers, who have since withdrawn from the locality. At the handover, the school had 96 pupils – 43 boys and 53 girls. It was in a sorry state of repair. The SND Sisters in Nigeria asked if they could transfer the money given by the BFNDA Charity to fund this new project of the structural repair and the managerial restructuring of this school. Having been assured that none of the earlier donations had been spent, the Executive Committee agreed to this. During my three years of my presidency, we raised a total of £13,500 for this charity. There was an additional contribution of a legacy of £4,000 from the BFNDA chaplain Fr. Chris Thomas’s aunt Maureen. The project was successfully completed.
Diane Donovan