Hello,
First of all, I want to say a big THANK YOU to Ascension Episcopal Church, Pueblo, CO for the Mite Box project which just raised $1071 for this effort. I thank also the donor who  mailed a donation for $1000 to support this project. I thank you all for visiting this fundraising page to learn about what I am doing here in Africa with the Lesotho Water Project.

My name is Andrew Dernovsek (VMI '06) and I'm a US Peace Corps volunteer. I'll be in the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho, Africa for the next two years. I live in a rondavel (mud hut) in a remote village of Mafikeng. It takes over 10 hours on very bad roads to get here from the capital city, Maseru, Lesotho. I can only get into Maseru every two months or so to post these messages and to post to my online journal, News from Lesotho. Lesotho. Visit it to learn more about life here in the Kingdom, but do come back because this is a BIG project and I'll need your help.
 
The goal of Lesotho Water Project is to bring water and the ability to irrigate to rural villages in the Ketane area. This will be done by harnessing local resources, involving communities in the building, and gathering funding for resources, which are not locally available, from the United States.

This project is about improving water access to remote villages near my village. Ha Phole is situated up a mountain from Mafikeng and is a solid three hour climb. The path to Ha Phole is narrow, steep, and unfit even for horses. However, the view and surrounding nature is breathtaking. Ha Phole is positioned on a dazzling plateau that in my estimation should not have been there. By this I mean that from the valley I live in you can see naught but the way up. Then, when you do arrive at the plateau you find a whole different world, with a village, farmland and a school.

The chief of Ha Phole says the community needs a water pump to bring water more easily to the village and its farmland. I was amazed that despite the harsh location, somehow this community had toiled to survive by toting water jugs overland, which takes four hours round trip. My first reaction was, "well, yeah, that's why people don't live on top of mountains," but during the trek down I reconsidered as I thought of people living in their homes in Arizona. That sparked my desire to begin the Lesotho Water Project.

If water could be brought to these people it could help their daily lives in many different ways. To begin with it would give them more time during the day to engage in other productive activities. Most importantly it would allow them to water year round, and raise healthy prosperous crops.

The idea began from Ha Phole, but in visiting many other villages in the Ketane area it has become apparent that they share similar problems. Some villages have no access to clean water while others need help and direction in irrigating their crops. The Ketane water project would help each village to alleviate this unnecessary suffering, and help people to help themselves build a better, brighter future.

You can be a sponsor for this "getting the water home" project. I am grateful to the Foundation for International Professional Exchange (FIPE) for accepting tax-deductible donations for the Lesotho Development Initiative, of which the Lesotho Water Project is one endeavor. Donating online through this website is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to support my fundraising efforts.

If you prefer to mail a check, then make it out to:
FIPE-LDI and on the "for" line put Lesotho Water Project
and mail it to:
Sherrie Howey
Foundation for International Professional Exchange, Inc.
6667 3R Road
Beulah, CO 81023

Just think- you can donate to this project and help these people get water easier, and you don't have to try to carry the water, hike to the village or try to live there!
Thank you for your support of the Lesotho Water Project. Stay up to date on this project by periodically visiting my News from Lesotho blog -- and don't forget to forward this to anyone who you think might appreciate a good long drink of water!

Andrew Dernovsek

OFFLINE (Mailed a check) Donors to date:

23 March 2008            $1071.00
20 January 2008         $    50.00
19 January 2008         $1000.00