The Woman at the Broken Well

In the middle of a drought in the Mkuranga District, Maryvonne Pool and her driver, Juma, drove out to the village of Mwarusembe. What she saw there would redirect the rest of her working life.

A woman was drawing water from an old, broken well. Maryvonne stopped, and asked her about her life.

Two kilometres, every day

Her name was Maua. She lived two kilometres from that well, and it was her only source of water. She was married, with four children to provide for. From a modest house she farmed on a small scale — food for her family, and a little more to sell.

Nothing about that arrangement was unusual in the district. That was precisely the point. The well was broken, the water was dirty, and it was the water her children drank.

A conversation about opportunity

Maryvonne asked whether she might be able to help — whether Maua would be willing to begin something new, growing more crops alongside a group of other women, work that could generate income and steady their households. Maua agreed.

Looking her in the eye and realizing what a difference I could make in her life touched my heart, and the idea of an NGO began to form in my mind.

The Village Heart records what followed in a single sentence: this was the beginning of African Reflections Foundation.

What grew from it

The pattern set in Mwarusembe is still the pattern today. Begin with water, because without it nothing else holds. Work with women, because they carry the heaviest share of the burden and are best placed to lead the response. Build something that generates income rather than dependency. Involve the community from the first conversation, so that what gets built belongs to them.

Everything on this website — the wells, the school and hostel projects, the organic farms, the women’s groups — descends from a conversation beside a broken well.