Tomlinsons

In 1987, Tomlinsons Furniture Group began its support of a major Oxfam water project in Ghana, which involved digging wells, providing hand pumps, and engaging local health workers to educate their communities on basic health education.

With Tomlinsons' long-term support, all of the 41 villages in a very remote region of Northern Ghana were provided with a clean, protected, water source and a supply of water throughout the year. This made a dramatic difference to the quality of life of many thousands of people in the region.

Tomlinsons Furniture Group most recently supported an Oxfam project in the Aftout region of southern Mauritania. Here, the environment is poor in natural resources and there is a chronic shortage of water. Over the next year, in 12 villages, new wells will be constructed, existing wells deepened, and two new dams will be built. This will provide local communities with a nearby source of water for their own and for their animals' consumption.

Thanks to Tomlinsons, the lives and livelihoods of these communities will be improved in several ways. Firstly, the villagers – and especially the children – will need to spend less time walking to collect water. They will have more time for domestic tasks, and the children will have more time to attend school. For the local small-scale farmers, an accessible and reliable supply of water will enable them to increase the land used for farming, and to increase their yields. This project will improve the living conditions of approximately 25,000 people in the area.