Kilkenny teacher and partner are sinking wells to save lives in Africa

A couple have been quietly doing extraordinary humanitarian work in Africa over the past 13 years that is helping save lives.

Wendy and Eamon Cahill, who live in the countryside between Abbeyleix and Ballinakill, are raising money to get their 10th well sunk in a poverty stricken rural community in Uganda.

For the fourth time this summer, they will lead a team out to view the difference those wells make, with the Irish charity Fields of Life.

Eamon who is a music teacher in Kilkenny College, busked recently at SuperValu Abbeyleix with daughter Sophie, to help fundraise for the latest well.

He will also host a fundraising variety concert in Spink Community Hall on Friday, February 7 to raise more money.  They have set a target of €13,000 to bore the well. 

In June he and Wendy will then lead a team of his TY students and others out to Uganda to see the difference that Fields of Life wells make on the ground.

Wendy told Kilkenny Live how it all began.

"It goes back to my mum and dad who were involved in Fields of Life. They had sponsored a child's education in Uganda.  My dad passed eight years ago and as a family we decided to then sponsor a well in his memory.

"Then Alex from Fields of Life contact us and asked if we wanted to visit the community where they had put a well. We thought about it and said 'why not'. 

"We went out and visited the community and the schools and saw the effects it had. Before the community didn't have access to fresh water. They used water holes, basically stagnant ponds. 

Wendy and Eamon beside a waterhole replaced by one of their wells.

"Young girls are the ones sent to get water so they might have to walk 5km to a water hole and then back, several times a day. So they can't go to school. They are also vulnerable, child rape is an issue. Obviously disease is too from the dirty water and so infant fatalities are high.

"A well changes everything overnight. Each well serves 600 to 800 people in a community. Fatalities disappear. Girls have an opportunity to attend school. Education is their way out of poverty. They are also protected while in school. It gives hope. 

"It had such a profound effect so when we came home we didn't want that to be the end," Wendy explained.

Their daughter was in TY at Kilkenny College at the time, and her friends heard about the family's donation, and came to Eamon, asking if he would bring out a team of students if they could fundraise for another well.

"Fields of Life said they would support that, so that was the first year we took a team. We've taken teams since then, this year will be our fourth time. In Covid a team fundraised for a well but didn't get to go out," she said.

Eamon Cahill with Kilkenny College TY students and a Ugandan community.

This June along with the TY students, some adults from the Dun Laoghaire Evangelical Church will make up the team.  Team members pay for their own costs with the charity organising transport and accommodation for them. 

Although they have only gone four times, thanks to generous donations in the past, the couple are on their tenth well this year, potentially helping 8,000 people to live a safer life and be educated.

"It's just a great opportunity that has a profound effect on anyone who goes. We have three girls and they've all now been there. Here we freely access education and water. You see the struggles that other people have," Wendy said.

"When we are there, we don't do the actual work. The Irish charity have their own drilling crew. Uganda is prolific with water but it's all under deep bedrock. Our team stays for a week, visiting schools and projects and communities and we can see exactly where the money goes and the difference projects make," Wendy Cahill said.

The variety concert in Spink Community Hall is on Friday evening, February 7 at 7.30pm, to include a mix of trad musicians and singers. Tickets will be available at the door. 

Donations can also be given via a Gofundme page set up by Eamon Cahill here.