Grief can be paralyzing.

In one African community, after the death of a woman who Lifewater had trained and equipped to serve as caretaker of the local well, everyone was so despondent that no one assumed responsibility for the village’s primary water source.

Without regular maintenance, the well in the Nigerian community of Angwa Cashew Kutunku soon fell into disrepair.

“Burdened with the pain of the loss, everyone had abandoned the well with her (the caretaker’s) death,” says Hosea Apeh, leader of Lifewater’s drilling and repair team in Nigeria. “They were unable to pull together to fix it.”

The well had been broken for more than five months – forcing people to rely on some potentially dangerous water sources – when Hosea and his team arrived and soon had it working again after replacing the hand pump and several other major components.

“Our coming here,” he says, “was an answer to prayer of the widower who had been hoping to fix the well in memory of his late wife.”

Now Hosea and his team are focusing on training a new caretaker.