Zuza Village: One Family Funds Clean Water for 350 Residents
Zuza Village Well Project - Impact Dashboard
Zuza Village has struck clean water for the first time in its history. Thanks to the extraordinary generosity of a single family, the 350 residents of Zuza Village will soon have safe, clean drinking water in the village, ending their reliance on a dambo that shrank by the dry season to a handful of shallow pools, a few inches deep and opaque with brown sediment, shared with livestock and wild animals.
This project was made possible by a single act of extraordinary generosity. E.K. and P.K., a married couple of Mary Mother of Divine Grace Parish in the Archdiocese of Chicago, chose to fully fund the Zuza Village Well Project, covering 100% of the goal in a single gift. Because of their compassion and faith, 350 people in one of the poorest and most remote villages we serve have clean, safe drinking water for the first time, and the women of Zuza no longer walk out to a marshy depression to scoop what is left of it into a bucket.
May God bless E.K. and P.K. abundantly for their gift to the people of Zuza Village. 🙏
In Loving Memory of Bernice Jensen, and Joseph and Mary Postulka
This well was given by E.K. and P.K., a married couple of Mary Mother of Divine Grace Parish, who together covered the entire cost of the Zuza Village Well Project in a single gift. It is dedicated in their words:
"We dedicate this well to the late Bernice Jensen, and the late Joseph and Mary Postulka, who taught everyone around them, by word and example, how to care for and nurture family and those closest to them. May their legacy, and the Spirit that works within us all, grant the people of Zuza health and wellbeing through this clean water, and open new opportunities for them. May it remind them always that they are, in the glory of God, wondrously made, and to Him we give thanks for the water that flows and for all those who brought the well to life."
Because of them, a village that had never had clean water now has a borehole of its own, and 350 people will drink safely for the rest of their lives.
From Crisis to Clean Water
Until now, the 350 residents of Zuza Village had no access to safe drinking water. Their only source was a dambo, a shallow, marshy depression, and by the dry season it had shrunk to a handful of pools lying in cut red-earth banks among clumps of sedge. The water was a few inches deep and opaque with brown sediment. There was no lining, no cover and no pump.
To reach it, the women of Zuza walked out of the village along a footpath, past cultivated fields and through miombo woodland, then crouched at a pool's edge and scooped with a small plastic basin, tipping scoop after scoop into a bucket until there was enough to carry home. The water was shared with livestock and wild animals, and this area is prone to cholera and other waterborne diseases, presenting severe health risks to the entire community.
Zuza is a very poor and remote village. It has no primary school, no clinic and no church of its own, and it had no alternative source of water when the pools ran low.
Before: the dambo that supplied Zuza Village, reduced by the dry season to shallow pools of standing brown water.
Clean Water at Last
On September 10, 2026, the drilling team finished the new borehole at Zuza Village, striking water in abundance. The crew worked through the night under the floodlights of the rig to reach it, and when the drill was cleaned out the water came up and out of the hole in a rush, catching the light and soaking the ground around the rig. The villagers who had gathered to watch broke into a massive celebration of song and dance while it ran. As Father Petros put it, the drilling "was done perfectly."
After generations of walking out to a marshy dambo and scooping brown water into a basin, the people of Zuza watched clean water rise from a well of their own for the first time.
The villagers of Zuza celebrate at the rig as water pours from the new borehole during drill cleanout.
Pump installation and finishing work follow the drilling, and Father Petros will then bless the new well and formally hand it over to the community. We will add photos and video of the blessing to this page as they arrive.
The Difference This Well Makes
A properly constructed borehole in Zuza Village will serve 350 people. This essential infrastructure will provide clean, safe drinking water directly in the village, ending the walk out to a marshy dambo and the slow work of scooping sediment-filled water from shallow pools shared with livestock and wild animals. It will dramatically reduce the risk of cholera and other waterborne diseases that threaten this community, fundamentally improving the overall health and well-being of residents. Families will gain reliable access to clean water year-round, from a source that does not shrink to a few muddy pools when the rains stop, breaking the cycle of disease caused by their old water source.
With proper management by a village maintenance committee, this vital resource should serve the community for approximately 75 years.
The Power of Generosity
The Zuza Village Well Project is a testament to what a single act of generosity can accomplish. E.K. and P.K. chose to fully fund this well, transforming the future of 350 people in a village so remote and so poor that it has neither a school, nor a clinic, nor a church of its own. Because of their gift, the families of Zuza will no longer crouch at the edge of a shrinking dambo to scoop brown water shared with livestock and wild animals, and the children born there will grow up having never known anything else.
Please keep Father Petros in your prayers as he continues his dedicated work serving the people of Malawi. 🙏
A gallery of video from the drilling at Zuza Village is included below. Photos and video of the completed well and the pump blessing will be added to this page as they arrive.