Subscribe to our mailing list

e-mail Format

WHO WE ARE

Wells for Zoë – Water for Life

We are an Irish voluntary organisation, founded in 2005 and working mainly in Northern Malawi, focused on enabling the rural poor to access clean, safe, drinking water. Working with women’s self-help clusters, a package including preschool, Girl Child and adult education, and Climate Smart Agriculture including planting indigenous trees and fruit trees, this bottom-up approach has a sustainable and life changing impact on communities.

we KNOW
CLEAN WATER CHANGES EVERYTHING

How can it be that so many people are deprived of this basic human right, considering that, in Northern Malawi, we can enable villagers access to clean, safe water for life at a cost of about one Euro each??

we are POSITIVE
YOUR CONTRIBUTION MAKES A REAL DIFFERENCE
we PROMISE
100% of YOUR DONATION DELIVERED

We deliver 100% of all public donations to our projects; that means no admin fees, no wages, no hidden extras are taken away.  All the money goes to the people and their projects.

800,000

approx no. of PEOPLE provided with access to CLEAN WATER since 2005

290

approx. GIRL CHILD STUDENTS supported with attending Secondary School in each academic year

1 & 7

rural HEALTH CENTRE built & HEALTH CLINICS Supported

4

FARMS established for RESEARCH and TEACHING

3

GIRLS HOSTELS supported, to help with the GIRL CHILD STUDENT Project

37

Young WOMEN to UNIVERSITY from Chipita School in 2014-2015 academic year

160

approx. PRESCHOOLS supported with materials for roofing and carer training

85,000

CERTIFIED FRUIT TREE SEEDLINGS ready for sowing and distribution to planters in 2023/2024 Season

270

PUMPS manufactured and installed in 2023

4

graduates from THIRD LEVEL Education (2 now working with WfZ)

20

Young WOMEN currently supported in UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE

3,720,150

INDIGENOUS TREES PLANTED in 2022/2023 season

MEET some of US

These are some of the WfZ people

From the Wells for Zoë workers in Malawi, to the Volunteers who met some of them, to those who volunteer at home, to the Board; click and see the WfZ Personnel.

Mathews in Enyezini
Mathews Chabwa
In Employee / Farm
Audily Faith Mvula
Audily Faith Mvula
In Embangweni / Planter
Emma Cahalane
Emma Cahalane
In Mary I College Limerick / Volunteer
Elaine Bolger and Alenipher
Elaine Bolger
In Board Member / DIT / Volunteer
DIT Student Volunteers 2009
Liam Stewart
In Board Member
Lontia Kwinika (Kadikechi)
Lontia Kwinika
In Enyezini / Kadikechi / Planter
Lovemore Lemon at the WfZ factory
Lovemore Lemon
In Employee / Land Restoration / Manager
Alex Kandota Kasera planter
Alex Kandota
In Kasera / Planter
Kirsty eating nsima
Kirsty Nash
In Volunteer
Eunice Phiri Kasera planter
Eunice Phiri
In Kasera / Planter

MEET THE PEOPLE BEHIND WfZ

The Wells for Zoë Board Members

Below are some of the people behind the Wells for Zoë ‘machine’. These are by no means the most important as that accolade is probably reserved for the people of Malawi who are helping themselves to a better future. More of our very special volunteers, Board members and Malawian workers can be found here.

team_image
CEO

John Coyne

John co-founded Wells for Zoë in 2005 after a visit to Malawi which had left him saddened and bewildered as to the suffering caused by what he saw as the lack of access to readily available water.

team_image
Education Officer

Mary Coyne

Co-founder of Wells for Zoë along with her husband John, a former teacher and lecturer, she leads the education team in Malawi.

team_image
Chair of the Board

Elaine Bolger

Elaine graduated with a first in her Business and management degree in DIT and has been to Malawi six times volunteering. She has been very much a hands-on member of the board for many years and just recently took over the Chair in 2018.

team_image
Secretary of the Board

Roseanne Dolan

Roseanne works as a software engineer for Verizon, Oath in their Dublin office. Roseanne has been using her IT skills to improve the WfZ website as well as her business contacts to spread the word about us since she first joined the board.

What we are AIMING for in

WATER, FARMING, EDUCATION

We are always in the business of installing pumps: the Malawian people dig the wells, we provide and install the pump, and hey presto they have clean safe water to drink close to their homes. The endless cycle of walking miles for (often disease-ridden) water is broken and they can then concentrate on living rather than simply surviving.
One of the next things that comes is a little farming to grow their own food and maybe even some to sell to make survival money. We harvest and distribute our own Ministry Certified Seedlings from our model farms – no GM fertiliser-hungry seedlings for us.
The other area that access to clean water lets us move onto is the Education of the Girl Child Student and we are very focused on this at present enabling 278 girls to attend secondary school.

Pumps Installed to date in 20240

Certified Fruit Tree Seedlings grown for 2023/2024 Planting Season0

Girl Child Students Supported in School by donors 2023-20240

OUR NEWS

All our newest and oldest posts

These are predominantly our blog posts from Blipfoto (our daily Phlog or photo-blog) but some are other news items we want to share, coupled with progress from the various parts of the Wells for Zoë ‘machine’.  Various press items and coverage are also included here. Stay tuned…

The first three below are our most recent posts and the final three are our first posts.

  • Karine Polwart

    Karine Polwart’s “Wells for Zoë” video

    By the time I get to this third track on the album, I feel like a small boy in a sweet shop, where every choice is beyond my imaginings. I was musically introduced to my ...

  • Woman drinking at pump

    Minor Miracles

    In Malawi, I often don’t know what day of the week it is and I’d normally be hard pressed to say what month it is, but its November, birthday time, not the best time ...

  • Mama Gondwe & William

    Mama Gondwe and her handbag!

    On February 11th last (2010), I sat beside an old gogo (granny) outside the pump factory in Mzuzu. We communicated with a real Malawi handshake and a few smiles. When I t...

OUR SUPPORTERS

PEOPLE WHO HAVE HELPED FUND WfZ

We have had great help over the years from many donors but those shown below are some organisations who have shown us great support. Without their help we would not be able to operate on the scale we would like to.  We still pay all administration costs ourselves and 100% of all donations go to Malawi so these organisations’ contributions all went to the heart of the matter.

CONNECT WITH US

GET SOCIAL

We are pretty social people so have a WfZ Facebook page, a Twitter feed, an Instagram site, and a YouTube channel. We also have a photo blog site (our phlog) with Blipfoto – the people behind the one photo everyday concept of blogging. We really want you to follow us and keep up-to-date with everything we are doing. This is important to us.

FACEBOOK

Keep in touch & share us

READ MORE

TWITTER

Follow us & stay tuned

READ MORE

INSTAGRAM

Know what we’re up to

READ MORE

YouTube

View some Video footage

READ MORE