Want to learn how to repair hand pumps and provide safe water to communities that need it? Learn more about well repair training that teaches students to repair and troubleshoot the most common hand pumps in the world.
Hand pump repair is vital to the mission of WaterStep. With a functioning hand pump, a community can quickly and easily access water sources. Hand pumps are easily broken in developing countries and can be left for years without being fixed because people simply do not know how to fix them. WaterStep provides a better option. Through our hand pump repair training program, people learn to easily repair broken hand pumps and provide access to water sources that is desperately needed by many communities.
Last Friday, a team of six Louisville Metro Police officers left for Kenya to repair broken hand pumps, a mission that will provide a water source to many people who may have walked miles daily to reach safe water. The team of police officers has been preparing for months now. Their training in August prepared them for any obstacles they may encounter on their eight day trip.
Kenya parliament member Wesley Korir and WaterStep Medical Director Dr. Bill Smock are leading the trip as part of a multi-year safe water initiative in Korir’s hometown in the region north of Nairobi. “The one thing that has defeated people is water,” Korir explained. Without access to safe water, people become trapped in sickness and poverty.
The lasting effect of training will provide Kenyans a micro-business opportunity. Korir plans to empower locals to be trained as hand pump repairmen, who can earn a living while creating a sustainable supply of safe water for their communities. “A healthy nation becomes a working nation,” Korir said. “We empower them with the tools to be able to do it themselves. When it breaks, you don’t just wait for another person to fix it. You fix it yourself.”
Read the article in the Louisville Courier Journal about the hand pump repair project with local police officers in Kenya.
Want to learn how to provide safe water and vital health education to people in developing countries around the world? Learn more about training classes in water treatment, health education, and well repair.
