All Star Kids providing clean water to rural communities.

An example of the type of pump All Star Kids installed

Canzee Pump Project, Mumba Day Care Centre, Mpongwe, Copper Belt, Zambia.

During the trip to Zambia in November, Mark Frain had the opportunity to help the community in Mpongwe by providing them with clean water. This is his personal account:

It is not often that I say what a truly fantastic 100% successful project this has been and yet I can say it here. Every now and then you come across someone that gives you hope, makes you do a double take, lifts a giggle in your heart and makes you wonder at how the human mind can come up with solutions in such a simple efficient and sustainable manner. Mr Richard Cransdale did this to me nearly six years ago; I should not have been surprised as men working in their sheds are the back bone if not slightly eccentric heart of British ingenuity. I was introduced to Richard by my cousin James Francis Olivere who works for RTC North who are based in Sunderland Tyne and Wear and were at that time helping Richard on some technical web site stuff that is beyond me.

Richard has spent many years developing, refining and enhancing a water pump initially brought into existence by Mr Owen in New Zealand.

Please go to the links provided to get the full story and to see the great work that Richard has been doing.

Richard supplied two Canzee pumps to us and we shipped them out to Zambia so that during our visit at the end of October this year we could install them in a rural area of the Copper Belt called Mpongwe helping support a wonderful lady; Hilda Mulenga and the Mumba Day Care Centre which she has established in order to help women and children overcome the many difficulties they face. A lack of food, lack of income, lack of safe drinking water, lack of education, lack of health care and a lack of a positive future.

The local community dug two 8m deep wells to reach the water table before we arrived with the pumps. I then ran what to me seemed a very short training session with four of the centres members and either I am a very good teacher, my instructions from Richard were excellent or the guys I trained were just very good at understanding and interpreting Richards simple schematic drawings! I like to think it was down to my teaching but I rather suspect that it had little to do with my input.

The end result of my trip to the Copper Belt was the successful installation of two working pumps that will supply many families and a school of over 400 children with clean safe drinking water.

These pumps are designed in such a way that they can be repaired by the same people that installed them and Richard kindly supplied enough spare parts to last the pumps a great many years of service.

Now how can we stop at two pumps, we need to get funding for many more pumps and at an unbelievable £280 per pump shipped out and installed, including the concrete capping I am sure we can find support to develop our Canzee Pump project. If you are interested please go to our donations section and remember every penny counts and every penny makes a real positive difference to the people we are in partnership with.