One Donor, One Village: Clean Water for Kapito, Given in Loving Memory of Emi Murakami
Kapito Village Well Project - Impact Dashboard
Kapito Village will soon have clean water for the first time in its history. Thanks to the extraordinary generosity of a single donor, the 560 residents of Kapito Village, along with learners and teachers at the nearby primary school, will soon have access to safe, clean drinking water, ending their reliance on a muddy dambo shared with livestock and wild animals. This well has been given in loving memory of Emi Murakami.
This project was made possible by a single act of extraordinary generosity. An anonymous donor has chosen to fully fund the Kapito Village Well Project, covering 100% of the goal in a single gift, given in loving memory of Emi Murakami. Because of this compassion and faith, 560 people will have clean, safe drinking water for the first time, and the children at the nearby primary school will no longer face the daily threat of waterborne disease. We are profoundly grateful for this generosity and this belief in our mission.
May God bless this generous donor abundantly for their gift to the people of Kapito Village, and may Emi Murakami's memory be eternal. 🙏
In Loving Memory of Emi Murakami
This well is given in loving memory of Emi Murakami. Emi passed away peacefully in her sleep on Saturday, December 13, 2025, the Feast of Saint Lucy, at Calvary Hospital, a Catholic hospice in New York City.
Emi struggled with cervical cancer for 3 years. During that time she underwent chemotherapy, radiation, multiple cancer drug therapies and clinical trial treatments. She was known for her cheerfulness and enthusiasm, always putting the people around her first, and thinking how she might be helpful to them. Faith and selfless service to others informed her life. She encouraged everyone she encountered. The medical staff, volunteers and patients often remarked at how many people gathered around her bed, often joking and laughing. Her willingness, generosity, and enthusiasm were boundless as she shared her experience, strength and hope with all. At one dark moment in the emergency department, she reassured the young doctor, saying, "I'm a Hiroshima kid. I'm not afraid, I'll do anything you ask." God granted her the grace of a happy death, bearing her illness without pain.
Emi was born in Hiroshima, Japan three months after the atomic bomb was dropped on that city. She almost died as a child from tuberculosis, were it not for the gift of penicillin from a US Army doctor to her family. She came to the US as a journalist, covering American entertainment for Japan's largest woman's magazine. She had many interesting assignments after that, one took her to American Samoa. But the most memorable and exciting one was covering the New York Yankees baseball team for Japan's largest sports daily newspaper for 10 years. Baseball was her passion.
It is a fitting tribute that a woman of such deep faith and strong character should be remembered through the gift of clean, life-giving water to an African village that has never had it, especially to its young girls, who face challenging circumstances much like those Emi herself experienced in Hiroshima. Through this well, Emi's memory will continue to bring the gift of life to others for generations to come.
Emi Murakami
From Crisis to Clean Water
The 560 residents of Kapito Village have no access to safe drinking water. The only water source is a dambo, a shallow, marshy wetland where murky, contaminated water collects among the mud and vegetation. Learners and teachers from the nearby primary school crowd together with villagers at the water's edge, crouching to scoop this brown, sediment-filled water into pots, basins, buckets, and whatever containers they can find.
The water is shared with livestock and wild animals, and this area is at high risk for cholera and other waterborne diseases, presenting severe health risks to the entire community. For the children who attend the nearby school, this contaminated dambo is the only water available during their educational day. Families have no alternative and no relief from the daily health risk this water source presents.
Learners and villagers crowd around the muddy dambo to collect water in Kapito Village.
What Happens Next
Kapito Village has been fully funded, but the work in the village is just beginning. With funding now secured, the drilling team will travel to Kapito to drill the borehole, pour the concrete pad, and install the pump. Once the well is complete, Father Petros will bless it and formally hand it over to the community.
We will update this page with photos and videos of the drilling, construction, and pump blessing as soon as they are available. Please check back to follow the progress of the Kapito Village Well Project, and to share in the moment clean water flows in Kapito for the first time.
The Power of Generosity
The Kapito Village Well Project is a testament to what a single act of generosity can accomplish. An anonymous donor chose to fully fund this well, transforming the future of 560 people who have never had access to clean water, and did so in loving memory of Emi Murakami. Because of this gift, families in Kapito will no longer have to gather brown, contaminated water from a muddy dambo shared with livestock and wild animals. Children at the nearby primary school will drink safe water during their school day. And the memory of a woman of great faith will live on in a source of clean, life-giving water for the generations yet to be born in Kapito Village.
Please keep Father Petros in your prayers as he continues his dedicated work serving the people of Malawi. 🙏
A gallery of images from Kapito Village is included below. Images and videos of the well drilling, construction, and pump blessing will be added to this page once the project is complete.