West Africa Affiliates
Regional Overview
In West Africa, Partners Worldwide walks alongside businesspeople and entrepreneurs in both urban and rural communities of Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria to create jobs and overcome poverty. People of West Africa are subsistence farmers, producers of cloth, fisherman, nomadic cattle and sheep herders, seamstresses, retailers, government workers, traders and merchants.
Since 2001, Partners Worldwide has partnered with businesspeople in West Africa who desire to strengthen the marketplace. Each one participates in mentoring relationships and trains in business or agricultural stewardship. In addition, business owners have better access to capital through village savings, micro loans, or small and medium loans that stabilize businesses and create jobs.
Nigeria - Water Wins
East Kambari Region
Water Wins doubles efforts to provide access to clean water
ZEELAND, Mich. — This summer, engineers, business people, and friends rallied together to commission a second drill rig that will provide access to clean water for thousands of people in Nigeria.
Water Wins is a partnership of Nigerian staff and a West Michigan mentor group, largely consisting of engineers. Since 2005, Water Wins has walked alongside over 175 villages to install wells throughout marginalized communities of northwest Nigeria.
The results are astounding. With access to clean water, the child mortality rate in these communities has decreased from 46% to less than 10% over the past five years.
According to Jeremiah Yongo, team leader and Nigerian staff of Partners Worldwide, “That means 36 lives are saved of infants and kids in every village we work with.”
Partnering with the villages is a strong value of WaterWins. Each community commits to save financially a year in advance to cover nearly 20% of the drilling costs. 
They are also equipped to own and maintain the wells. Today, nearly 100% of the boreholes last up to 20 years.
The heavy Nigerian rainy season limits the number of months during the year that the aging original rig can drill wells. According to Yongo, a daunting 90% of people in the region do not currently have a sustainable source of water. Over 40 villages are on the waiting list for wells, he adds.
The second drill rig will double the capacity to drills wells and, in coming years, may generate income to cover expenses for communities that cannot afford the full price. “We’re .jpg)
not the drivers in this,” says Yongo about their shared faith in God’s plan. “We’re being taken on the ride of our lives, and it’s exciting!”
Rebuilding the second drill rig took over 500 combined hours to disassemble, repair, paint, and reassemble, says Ron Gunter, one team member in the U.S. who helped transform the drill rig, made in the 1950s, and rebuild the transmission of the 1971 fire truck on which it now operates. “It’s not only money that matters in stewardship, but where your hearts are when using your time, talents, and energy,” he says.
According to Gunter, over 50 people shared their time to work on the drill from nearly 15 different companies in the area. “The 
outpouring of energy to fix this drill rig was almost bizarre at times. When you feel that prime, you know God’s working on something.”
Back in Nigeria, the drill rig is essential for the crew to do the best work they can, says Yongo. “We are called to better people’s lives—to think and work together with these communities. Lives are going to be saved, because of what people have done.”
By 2014, Water Wins hopes to drill 110 more wells throughout the region, at $5,000 cost per village. To walk alongside these communities, please donate online at Partners Worldwide.
Video: Jeremiah Yongo addressing the crowd at the rig commissioning