Creating Sustainable Access to Clean Water Through Community Loans

Community Transformation Trust is proud to support the work of WHOlives, a non-profit dedicated to helping vulnerable communities gain access to clean water through interest-free loans. Recently, we contributed to their efforts by purchasing a Village Drill - an innovative, portable borehole drill that dramatically lowers the cost of well installation.

You can help support WHOlives projects by making a donation via our Donations Page. Donations made through our charity are tax-deductible in New Zealand.

A Smarter Approach to Clean Water

Rather than giving away wells for free (a model that often leads to broken pumps and no long-term maintenance), WHOlives provides interest-free loans to poor communities so they can pay for a borehole to be drilled in their village. Once the loan is repaid, the funds are re-loaned to another community - creating a self-sustaining cycle of clean water access.

How It Works

WHOlives focuses on some of the world’s most impoverished regions, currently prioritizing rural Kenya and Uganda. Trained local teams use the Village Drill to install wells in villages. Families contribute a portion of the cost, encouraging ownership from day one.

In addition to drilling the boreholes, WHOlives provides training to ensure each village can maintain its water source long-term. The model creates local accountability and economic incentive—key to keeping the wells operational for generations.

Long-Term Impact

Encourages local ownership and sustainability

Creates jobs through trained, low-cost drilling teams

Improves health, hygiene, and education (especially for girls)

Reduces dependency by promoting community-led solutions

See Current Projects & Make a Difference

You can view WHOlives' active projects on their Our Projects page.

To support these active projects you can donate via our Donations Page (donations made via our Donations Page will be allocated by us to the WHOlives Projects, and are tax-deductible in New Zealand as our charity the Community Transformation Trust has overseas donee status).

Make a Donation