One of my favorite columns in the NYTimes online is one entitled Fixes. There are a variety of people working about things that work! This is exactly what the Priestess loves to hear and talk about!

This week’s article by Tina Rosenberg talks about wells in Africa. They’re a great idea which have huge impact on villages, particularly the women of the village who can be saved a walk of as much as 12 hours in a day to get water. That means girls go to school. It means they’re not out alone at risk of rape. Wells make a difference in raising the quality of living in the village.

But sadly, most of the programs that put wells in do nothing to keep wells in action. So the wells work until the pump dies and then village life is once again interrupted by the trek for water.

The same problems exist in Uttar Pradesh the most populous state in India. But there an organization entitled WaterAid (a British-based charity) is training local village mechanics male and female (a huge step that has been accepted only because the women are actually fixing the wells.). What makes this work in India is that the government is paying for the training program. That’s not going to work in Africa. There’s one more article on this topic. I’ll update the post when that happens. In the meantime, you can read the Fixes article here. In the meantime, if you wanted to make a holiday donation to WaterAid, they’d be happy to accept your help.