Web Edition - Summer 2002 Mission Report

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Drill team bailing the Eziama well during development

Eziama Well has the following GPS co-ordinates: N 05^o 49.393' E 007^o 01.196' at an elevation of 536 Ft above sea level.

This well drilling and development served as the training project opportunity for the new drill team of 7 people. Mr. Harry Westmoreland of Living Water International was the chief trainer here assisted by Allan Fulton - another APF / LWI volunteer based in Ghana.

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In Photo above: Harry Westmoreland of Living Water Int'l helps us train the new drill crew while Allan Fulton listens in ...

This well is located in Eziama Village, Ogberuru - one of the 10 major village communities in Ogberuru, near Orlu in Imo State. When completed, it will serve about 1000 villagers, plus nearly 30% of the Ogberuru Secondary School population that will use water from the well.

A good water aquifer was located between 155 feet down to 170 feet before hitting a volcanic rock formation that was difficult to penetrate with the LS-200. We decided to case and develop the well at that depth. Unfortunately, the casing supplied to us by the water well supplier in Owerri was so mismatched in threads (metric & standard) that we tried to manage and use it by being over creative. We were feeling concerned about the well caving in a second time because it had been left for over 2 days while shopping around for the suitable casing and pump to install here.

As a result, the casing / screens cracked in a few places while being forcefully installed, thereby causing sand and silt to be introduced into the well. This fault damaged the well and compromised the water quality. We therefore had to seal this well to the disappointment of the villagers and our crew. However, we promised ourselves to return to the same village in a about 2 months to drill a replacement well just 50 feet away from this known potentially good spot.

We shall be bringing you updates of the water well development effort in these parts of Africa as things unwind with the new drill crew in action.

The Uzi-Owerri well being developed: It produces over 100 gallons of water per minute from a deep water bearing zone. Well is 200 feet.

The Uzi Water well became a necessity because of it's central location and the facilities cited there by the Anglican Communion. Many years ago, it was fully owned by the Anglican Diocese of Owerri before the Government took over the primary school built by the mission. For years, like every thing else in Nigeria, the school and other facilities have been neglected and gotten very dilapidated. However, when Bishop Cyril arrived in office, he started a number of development and refurbishing programs to improve the place. One of the facilities at the site is the Vocational training center / Hostel for women. 

The new well is sited just beside this hostel cum-Guest house and training center. It will supply water to this large building as well as the printing press / medical center next door and the primary school that has gone without any steady water supply for years.

To watch a related movie / video clip, click on Uzi-Modem if you use a modem, or click Uzi-DSL / Cable if you are on Broadband Internet access.

Missionary Patsy Fulton (APF / LWI), and Judy Cady checks patients prior to consultations with doctors at the Ogberuru Outreach in 27-28 July 2002.

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Below: A crowd of villagers gather in Ogberuru during our first medical outreach to receive free treatment. While they wait (some joyfully singing praises to God for having white people come to them - "Onyeocha" in Igbo language) was a big thing for many who have never seen a white person before. They are called in the order they received numbers for some orderliness.

For more Medical Outreaches story and links to additional photo album go here ...

The V-TEN (Vocational Technical Educational Network) in Computer and Internet Fundamentals went very well training 23 in the basic class - introduction, Word processing and a bit of Desk Top Publishing; 14 in the advance class with Excel for finance and account users, and 4 others in the maintenance / hardware short course.

Relief Network Ministries furnished one new Computer System for running the V-TEN program, and a laptop computer for the Bishop's Foundation clinic and the diagnostic TROPIX software for us in Owerri. We also provided medical test instruments / kits for blood pressure and blood sugar diabetes testing with our two affiliate health care centers in Nigeria - one under the Bishop's Foundation, and Total Care Clinic both in Owerri Imo State. Both of these organizations are regularly engaged in outreach programs to villages & other communities. For the benefit of the ministry work done by Love of God Evangelistic Center in Ogberuru Orlu, we provided another laptop computer with some software. Finally, we left behind about a dozen software packages, books / titles for training, research and skills acquisition at the Bishop's Foundation in Owerri for use at the computer center facilities.