In Elephant Country

What if…

to get clean water…

you had to walk through a jungle filled with wild elephants?

It turns out elephants don’t make great neighbors!

While otherworldly to Westerners, this was the daily dilemma of these Gondi tribesmen and women in northeast India. Their village was so remote that government services did not reach them - not school, not electricity, not water. To compound their problems, at night the elephants would attack the village, pulling the posts out of the villagers’ raised huts and stealing food they had foraged for their own families.

You may be thinking, “so you got into the elephant business??” Don’t worry - we know what we’re good at, and we leave the animal control to the experts! But the villagers did ask for a well, which is our specialty - so we set them up with that, and several high-powered solar flashlights that they can use to scare the elephants away.

This well now provides clean water to more than 40 families every day, and has brought tremendous relief and joy. One village leader told us, “Despite our hardships, this new borewell has become a symbol of hope and progress!”