Social media activist Gerald Kampanikiza courts donors who provides safe water to Mchinji
Social media activist Gerald Kampanikiza, popularly known as GCK Cameras, has helped court donors from Dubai who, concerned with challenges of safe water in Tikoliwe Village in Mchinji, have come in and constructed a borehole in the area.
Wednesday April 24th, 2024 will be a day to remember for people of Tikoliwe Village, Traditional Authority Mulonyeni in Mchinji District after a borehole was handed over to them by a well-wisher in Dubai through a Malawian based there Annie Makolera.
It all started with a documentary published by one of the local media houses Zodiak.
A team of journalist led by son to sister Annie Makolera Mike Daud arrived at Tikoliwo village at around 11:30AM ready to handover a borehole that has costed MK8.2 million.
It was on March 14th, 2024 when this page posted information about a well-wisher who was more than ready to provide clean water to a local community and that was responded by a number of videos and photos highlighting the water challenges many communities are facing across the country.
After going through the videos, a decision was made reaching to the said village and initially, it was indicated in the first place that the project will cost MK6 million but due to some other challenges that were faced in the course of drilling the borehole, it rises to MK8.2 million.
Upon arrival, representative of the well-wisher Gerald Chavez Kampanikiza together with journalists were directed to the location where community members used to fetch water highlighting how challenging it was to find water with women waking up early in the morning everyday something that has also contributed to many divorces within the village.
It is clear now that the development will significantly transform people’s lives through access to clean water unlike the past when they were sharing the same water sources with animals.
Speaking to the media after the handover ceremony, representing the donor, Gerald Chavez Kampanikiza said the well wisher decided to provide the borehole in the area after noting that people were walking a long distance to find water which was posing a threat to their lives.
“This village was chosen following a video that was sent to us by Ephraim Tendai Zulu who is from this village but based in Lilongwe,” Kampanikiza revealed.
He added that to make matters worse, the water consumed was not safe for human consumption adding to the long distance challenge.
“Our well wisher who opted for anonymity, is advising the beneficiaries to take care of the facility in order to last longer,” he revealed.
He then highlighted that three more areas in the country will benefit from the same and that will be in the north, south and eastern regions of the country.
In his remarks, group Village Headman Tikoliwe, expressed his excitement with the development saying that their prayers have been answered.
He however, called on other well wishers to emulate the same and assist some other villages in the area with the same development.
“I will establish a committee to look after the facility,” he said.
Mercy Mwale, who got divorced in the process of fetching water for her family, said the intervention will assist other women not to face what she encountered.
“There were fights and breaking of buckets in the places where water was found and it was not enough for everyone,” Mwale said.
In his contribution, Ephraim Tendai Zulu who provided the video to #GCKCAMERAS expressed his happiness with the development indicating that his village is mostly sidelined in many developmental projects.
“We have many problems here because even our nearest hospital is not the one at Mchinji District but we use the one in Zambia,” Zulu indicated.
He added that many youth’s in the area are involved in early marriages, unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases because of lack of proper information on how they can take care of their lives.
