The Ghana On Tap Project

In 2008, a friend had recently returned from an internship in rural Ghana and shared with me about his life changing experience working with the community of Mowire, a small village in central Ghana. I had wanted to teach photography to children abroad after working in a children’s hospital teaching art therapy one previous summer, and this got my wheels turning. Fast forward a few months, my plane ticket was booked and I was headed to the Triumph International School with a bag full of donated old film cameras and a dream. After two months with this community I was so profoundly moved by their kindness and community and asked if there was something I could fundraise for back home to support the school.

Their answer: a well.

Everyday, multiple times a day, these children would walk over a mile each way to fetch one single bucket of potable water. Clean drinkable water wasn’t a given, as it is in many places around the world with just a turn of the tap, and this stuck with me. Returning home I pooled my resources, hosted a handful of events at bars and even a few pop up exhibitions and ultimately raised over $11,000 USD for the cause. Two years later, and a lot of headache, the Ghana On Tap Project well at the Triumph school was finally tapped. The water continues to flow to this day.