Mission
Amman Imman is dedicated to improving and saving lives among the poorest and most abandoned populations of the world, by supplying permanent sources of water in the Azawak of West Africa.
Vision
"Water is Life." This could not be truer than in the Azawak of West Africa where half a million people have no water for ten months of the year. Only half of the children reach their fifth birthday, and many simply die of thirst. They are the human faces of climate change.
A vast plain approximately the size of Florida on the edge of the Sahara, the Azawak is one of the poorest regions in landlocked countries, Niger and Mali. Climate change has shortened the rainy season to less than two months a year. Without rain, the people and animals have no water to drink or bathe with. Living on the brink of survival, the region’s 500,000 inhabitants walk up to thirty-five miles a day searching for water. They have no access to roads or schools, and health centers are a two day donkey ride away. Few development organizations work to improve their lives.
There is hope. Clean and sustainable sources of water do exist there, at depths ranging from 600 to 3000 feet, too deep to reach without expensive mechanical equipment. Amman Imman: Water is Life is drilling permanent sources of water in order to provide these resilient people a chance to live without the indignity of daily thirst and fear of water-borne illness. Amman Imman’s borehole wells provide water for up to 25,000 people and animals, and serve as a catalyst for community development. Once water flows year round, other development organizations provide an array of other desperately needed support, such as schools for children and adults, reforestation and environmental protection programs, opportunities for economic development, agriculture, and food and health aid.
Water is life. One water source at a time, we can bring water and hope to people who have nowhere else to turn. Please help fulfill this dream. The children of the Azawak deserve a better future.
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“Water is Life.” This statement holds a particular significance for the people of the Azawak of West Africa. These populations of formally nomadic herders live in an area of the world where it is a daily struggle to find even a drop of water for nine to eleven months of the year.
The Azawak people live in one of the poorest regions of the West African countries of Niger and Mali. This vast region located on the edge of the Sahara desert is approximately 90,000 square kilometers. Outside of the short rainy season, which lasts about two months, the 500,000 inhabitants of the region travel as much a 50 kilometers a day in search of water. This dire situation has been exacerbated by climactic conditions, where the rainy season shortens every year. Ten years ago, the populations relied on the five-month rainy season that provided ground water for families and their livestock most of the year. Three years ago, the rainy season had shortened to three months, and people and animal populations had only limited quantities of water for six months out of the year. Today, the rainy season has shortened to one month, and ground water last less than three.
Further aggravating the situation, in the Azawak there are very few roads, few schools, the closest health centers often take at least two days to reach, and few other development organizations help the populations. These harsh conditions contribute to the high infant mortality rate, where one out of two children die before their fifth birthday. A quarter of these infant deaths are attributed to water.
AMMAN IMMAN’S WORK: Building Borehole Wells as Oases of Life and Hope
The saying: Amman Imman, Arr Issudarr (“Water is Life, Milk is Hope”) illustrates the priority of populations living in the Azawak region. The primary concern of the Azawak people is access to reliable, potable, and sustainable sources of water. They need water in order to one day hope to improve their overall living conditions. Although inaccessible by the limited means of the inhabitants of the region, abundant quantities of potable water exist in a “live” (naturally recharged) aquifer located between 200 to 800 meters (600 to 3000 feet) underground.
The American 501(c)3 organization, Amman Imman: Water is Life has developed the following objective: to build Oases of Life for the half million people surviving in the Azawak of West Africa. In concrete terms, the organization plans on building up to 50 permanent, sustainable, and potable water sources across the region. By providing life-giving water, Amman Imman aims to reduce the prevalence of diseases and incidence of death related to the lack of water in the Azawak region, and to improve the quality of life for its people. Through these water sources, all forms of life can sprout, including: agricultural and livestock production, health establishments, schools, opportunities for commerce and other economic activities, and environmental protection programs such as reforestation.
To achieve its goal, Amman Imman is committed to building borehole-wells that offer the Azawak people a healthy and abundant water source throughout the year. Amman Imman: Water is Life has been operating in the Azawak of West Africa since 2005. For the first five years of its existence, Amman Imman: Water is Life operated as a program of the American 501(c)3 The Friendship Caravan.
CURRENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Providing Permanent and Sustainable Water to Over 60,000 People and Animals and Mobilizing thousands of Heroes of Compassion Worldwide.
Between June 2006 and June 2007, Amman Imman constructed its first borehole in the village of Tangarwashane, in the Department of Abalak. This borehole serves the needs of 4 sedentary villages, 5 semi sedentary camps, several camps of nomads passing through the area, and their livestock (between 10,000 to 15,000 head). During the dry season, approximately 25,000 people and animals drink and bathe thanks to this borehole. Amman Imman also set up a Water Resource Management Committee (WRMC) in order to ensure the sustainability of the borehole. Amman Imman and the Department of Hydraulics of Abalak monitor the activities of the WRMC to ensure proper stewardship of the borehole. Since the construction of the Tangarshane borehole, several positive developments have taken place: a school has been built, and several families have moved to Tangarwashane so that their children can attend school and benefit from the life giving water; 5,000 Gum Arabica trees have been planted as a revenue-generating and reforestation activity; a school nursery has been planted, and several families have undertaken sustenance farming; women now have a cereal bank and a small store, for which they share the income to help pay for food and other needed goods for their families; and people with more advanced skills have begun moving into the community with the desire to help the village expand and develop economically. During that same time frame as the construction of the Tangarwashane borehole, Amman Imman provided follow-up support to the Azawak village Chinwagari, where UNICEF constructed a borehole thanks to a proposal submitted by Amman Imman.
Amman Imman’s second borehole, built in the village of Kijigari, was constructed between the months of February and June of 2010. This borehole provides water to the 6,000 people and their animals living in the village, as well as the people and their animals living in fifteen camps and villages surrounding Kijigari. At the height of the dry season, more than 35,000 people and animals use the borehole. A WRMC has also been set up to manage this borehole. Despite having been constructed, Amman Imman is still fundraising to pay off the cost of construction.
In the meantime, beginning in the fall of 2006, Amman Imman launched its service-learning program, Wells of Love. Wells of Love empowers students as "Heroes of Compassion" - future leaders with caring, philanthropic spirits - by engaging them to help bring water and hope to the 500,000 children and adults living in the Azawak. To date, over 50 schools, mostly Montessori schools, have raised funds to bring water to the Azawak. Their collaborative efforts culminated this year when the Kijigari borehole was finished and named the Montessori Well of Love in honor of their efforts. Amman Imman plans to expand this program into additional Montessori, public, and private schools to give many more students an opportunity to have a long-lasting and significant impact on the lives of some of the most vulnerable.
SHORT-TERM VISION: A Holistic Approach to Make Amman Imman Communities Economically and Ecologically Vibrant, Stable, and Resilient
In the short-term, Amman Imman: Water is Life will continue to provide follow-up support to Tangarwashane, Kijigari, and Chinwagari in order to help the communities develop. Amman Imman will persist to improve the borehole infrastructure in order to enable the populations to maximize on the benefits of the technology. The organization will also aim for a holistic approach by developing essential activities that will help make Amman Imman villages economically and ecologically vibrant and resilient. Most importantly, Amman Imman pledges to work directly with the populations on a long term basis in order to ascertain the sustainability of all the activities we conduct in a community.
LONG-TERM VISION: Planting Sustainable Oases of Life throughout the Azawak, and Expanding to help other Vulnerable and Abandoned Communities throughout the World
In the long-term, Amman Imman: Water is Life envisions building up to 50 borehole-wells throughout the Azawak as a way of creating Oases of Life. Through the provision of sustainable and permanent water sources, Amman Imman will continue saving thousands of lives and providing hope to the half-million people of the Azawak region. Alongside borehole construction, Amman Imman will conduct essential secondary activities to promote food security, environmental protection, economic growth, autonomy and empowerment. Once Amman Imman has successfully planted firmly rooted oases of life throughout the Azawak, it will seek out other abandoned and extremely vulnerable populations of the world to help establish stability, life, and hope in these communities.
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Wells of Love is the service learning program of Amman Imman: Water is Life. Its mission is to empower students as Heroes of Compassion - future leaders with caring, philanthropic spirits - by engaging them to help bring water and hope to the 500,000 people of the Azawak of West Africa.
Wells of Love Goals:
* Uniting students, young people of all ages, from preschoolers to university students, as caring philanthropists, or “Heroes of Compassion”, capable of turning their empathy into direct action through collaborative and individually initiated efforts.
* Increasing awareness among students about some of the most crucial humanitarian and environmental issues of our time, including how the global water crisis and climate change directly affect the lives of the people living in the Azawak of West Africa.
* Shaping tomorrow’s leaders as global activists and problem solvers, who bring about change and find positive solutions to some of our world’s most challenging problems.
* Raising funds towards building numerous “Wells of Love” thereby having long-lasting and significant impact on the lives of the populations of the Azawak.
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