March 16, 2012
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You funded a drilling rig… and now, it’s going to work!

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sept

In September 2011, we asked you to help fund charity: water’s first drilling rig to bring clean water to 40,000 new people every year in rural Ethiopia. More than 1,400 mycharity: water fundraisers and donors answered in a big way, raising more than $1.2 million for a brand new drilling rig fleet.

By now, you probably know we’re big on showing impact. From proving every completed water project with photos and GPS to sharing stories from people you’ve helped get clean water to drink — we want you to see how you’ve changed lives.

And today… we have exciting news! We were expecting to drill the first well with the new rig in May of this year. But Founder Scott Harrison was just in Ethiopia and… the first drilling rig arrived early!

Take a look at how your support is already helping bring life’s most basic need to people in Ethiopia:

We’re so grateful for your support of our work, our partners’ work, and our mission to end the water crisis. Thank you, September Campaign supporters! And stay tuned: as promised, we’re getting the GPS device set up in this rig soon so you can track its progress from village to village.

Learn more about September Campaign 2011 here >

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  • Amp

    wow. amazing. it seems that it found clean water in just a Few minutes… we will  see….
    Thanks for doing all to help! :D
    -Apsd1109

  • http://www-d.charitywater.org/blog/ charity: water

    Hi, Shari – 

    Since the start, we’ve always worked through local parnters on the ground — here’s a bit more info on why:
    http://bit.ly/GEbIpC

    This is still true — the drilling rig(s) funded through September Campaign 2011 are being used by our local partner, Relief Society of Tigray (REST) in northern Ethiopia. We worked with them to choose the best rig for their needs, then decided to ask our fundraisers to help us build REST’s capacity by funding the rig for them. Sorry if we confused you by saying “charity: water’s first drilling rig” — it is, but it will be used by our local partners, not charity: water staff.

    However, you are right when you say this is an exciting shift for charity: water… it is! Since the start, we’ve for the most part funded construction materials and other costs associated with building individual water projects (see what we fund here: http://bit.ly/GBCfYC). The rig was the first time we asked supporters to help us fund capacity costs — tools that will build the ability of our local partners to scale their work.

    Here’s more info on REST and September Campaign: http://www.charitywater.org/september
    And here’s more info about capacity costs: http://www.charitywater.org/blog/sept-2011-costs/

    Thanks for the great question.