Our First Year: 37 Wells for 22,540 People - Thank You
Our First Year - Impact Dashboard
One year ago, we asked people we had never met to trust us. We asked them to send a gift halfway around the world, to a village they would never visit. We hoped we might fund five wells. Maybe ten. Together, we funded thirty-seven. Thirty-three are complete and pumping clean water, four more are funded and waiting for the drill, and together they will serve 22,540 people in rural Malawi.
Our first year, in under two minutes. Thank you.
More than 200 people in 13 countries gave to Water of Mercy this year, from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Mexico, the Netherlands, Germany, Australia, Mauritius, Brazil and New Zealand. Some gave once. Some gave again and again. Fifty-four of you have given more than once, and nine wells were funded entirely by a single gift.
We want to especially recognize our faithful friend Jörg P., whose 52 donations have reached 22 different village wells, more than half of every well we have funded. We are deeply grateful as well to Beth J., who has helped fund nine villages, and to Sonia M., Alejandro E., David K. and Kathleen M., whose faithful gifts, village after village, are a quiet engine of this work.
We are profoundly grateful to the 2026 Mission Appeal of the Archdiocese of Chicago and its three parishes, St. Paul the Apostle in Gurnee, Mary, Mother of Divine Grace in Westchester, and St. John Cantius in Chicago, whose members gave more than $50,000 to this mission. A gift through Mary, Mother of Divine Grace built the well at Katete School, and gifts from St. John Cantius fully funded the wells at Kamatawo and Nkhamenya. Thank you as well to St. Raphael the Archangel in Old Mill Creek and to the Knights of Columbus.
Thirteen donors each gave 80 percent or more of a village's well on their own: Kathy B. at Chivinya, Reatha W. at Phembe, Daniele R. at Msese, Stephen A. at Chizule and Zebediya, Mary K. at Chibekete, James S. at Chimwendo Chisi, Edward J. at Kapito, M.D. at Katete School, Beth J. at Mataliyana and Chakwanika, J.A. at Mazanga, E.K. and P.K. at Zuza, Jacqueline W. at Kanjazi, and Susan S. at Gulumula. A single gift like that carries a whole village to clean water.
We owe special thanks to Jacque M., a member of our board as well as a donor, and to Edward J., Karen P., Jo Lynne S., Greg A. and Sophia R., whose help this year has meant more to us than we can say.
To every one of you, whatever the size of your gift: thank you.
From Five Hoped-For Wells to Thirty-Seven
It began with a single well. In January 2025, before Water of Mercy was a charity, we funded a well at Yotamu Village ourselves, to prove that the system we had built with Father Petros could work. It was funded, drilled and installed in fourteen days.
Our website opened to donors in September 2025. Chizani Village was funded online in three days, and Chivinya Village was funded by a single donor that same month. By the end of 2025, ten wells had been funded, Yotamu included. In 2026 there have been twenty-seven more, including eight wells funded in thirty days this August and September. On August 31, 2026, for the first time, two Water of Mercy wells were drilled on the same day, at Theu and Mkandawire.
We promised you would see where every gift went. Every well has its own page, with the village, the water its people drank before, and the photographs Father Petros sends back. Here is every one of them, in the order they were funded:
- Yotamu Village, 400 people
- Chizani Village, 500 people
- Chivinya Village, 600 people
- Kabiza Village, 700 people
- Emvuyane Village, 700 people
- Khorwa Village, 600 people
- Kajombo Village, 550 people
- Msese Village, 757 people
- Phembe Village, 758 people
- Mchilawengo Village, 670 people
- Msambanyifwa Village, 875 people
- Luwerezi Village, 870 people
- Zebediya Village, 679 people
- Chizule Village, 520 people
- Bundi Village, 350 people
- Zakariya Village, 450 people
- Chimwendo Chisi Village, 820 people
- Chibekete Village, 400 people
- Kapili Village, 700 people
- Yesaya Village, 700 people
- Kaputeni Chisi Village, 440 people
- Chimbiranjala Village, 700 people
- Kapito Village, 560 people
- Mataliyana Village, 420 people
- Theu Village, 560 people
- Katete School, 1,230 people
- Chirwa Village, 590 people
- Chakwanika Village, 430 people
- Mkandawire Village, 420 people
- Mazanga Village, 378 people
- Zuza Village, 350 people
- Chindenga Village, 453 people, funded, drilling ahead
- Kanjazi Village, 470 people
- Gulumula Village, 440 people
- Kamatawo Village, 750 people, funded, drilling ahead
- Nkhamenya Village, 1,000 people, funded, drilling ahead
- Kaluluma Village, 750 people, funded, drilling ahead
Year Two Starts Now
Father Petros has told us there are still hundreds of villages without safe water. The next one is already waiting. Mpherembe Village is home to 800 people who draw all their drinking water from a dambo, a shallow, muddy marsh. Please, join us again this year. We can't do it without you.
Help fund the well at Mpherembe Village
The Power of Generosity
None of this would happen without our friend and partner in Malawi, Father Petros. He blesses the wells with prayers, holy water and incense, and on every well he blesses, we place the same words: "Jesus, I trust in You."
You trusted us, and we all trust in Him. Thanks be to God. 🙏
With gratitude,
John, Lori & Father Petros