Wells - Providing Water to Cambodian Families

Trailblazer Foundation encourages rural villagers to create self-sustaining programs by providing access to water for increased agricultural production and economic stability, and potable water for improved health and quality of life.

Complementing our efforts to provide clean water technologies to our village partners through water filters, is our effort to also provide abundant water via the drilling of new wells. In an ideal situation, Trailblazer provides each family who wants one with both a well and a water filter.  It is worth noting that wells also benefit our Food Security program, as families use the more easily accessed water for their agricultural pursuits.

One of our past beneficiaries, Kem and her husband Jom, had this to say about the well received from Trailblazer Foundation.  “Before we got the well, every day my husband went to the rice field far from home. He packed a meal and drank water from a local pond in the forest or rice field."  Kem stayed home cooking, taking care of the children and growing vegetables around the house using the water from the hand dug well.  She said, "My children and I got sick and had diarrhea often.  We had to spend a lot of money to buy medicine.  Now that we have the Trailblazer Foundation well, we have clean and clear water that we can use for drinking, cooking, washing dishes, bathing, and watering our vegetable garden.  It’s much easier now and I spend less time bringing water home, and I’m not afraid of my children falling in.”

Their only source of water prior to receiving a well from Trailblazer came from a hand dug well located about 50 meters from their house.  The water from the hand dug well was turbid and dirty, and the water level much lower in the dry season.  Sometimes animals would drink from the well and their dung would flow in.

Clean water means improved health for everyone involved, and less expenditures of the already scarce household income on medicines and clinic visits.  For many families who are counted among the poorest of the poor, health care is not an option, so access to clean water is that much more vital to ones health and well being.  Healthy children miss fewer days of school due to illness, and healthy parents are better able to work to provide income for their family.

To sum up, Trailblazer remains committed to helping families like Kem and Jom who tackle the challenges of unsafe water.  With crucial help from donors like you, more and more families will be able to have access to clean water to drink, bathe, wash clothes, and irrigate a home garden.

Our 2018 goal is to drill 80 more new wells, which will directly benefit 400 villagers (80 families with an average of 5 people per household).  As of today, we are off to a good start with donations that have been received for 10 wells, with a contract for another 17 wells on its way.  This means we are one-third of the way toward reaching our goal!

With your continued and generous support we expect to provide 400 more villagers with a well this year, so they too can realize the benefits of clean and abundant water.  Thank you.