Wells Of Life

Wells of Life is a 501(c)(3) faith- based nonprofit organization that delivers clean water to rural Uganda by drilling wells and teaching sustainable sanitation and hygiene. Our mission is to provide access to safe, clean water through the installation or restoration of sustainable borehole water wells and WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) educational programs.

Wells of Life grew out of the 2008 very successful school-building efforts in rural Uganda from our founder, Nick Jordan, who realized that while the four schools that he financed met a great need, access to clean water was the critical need and was essential to save lives, diminish poverty and disease. He therefore created Wells of Life in 2010 with the ten year goal of financing the drilling of one thousand wells, to serve one thousand people each.

Right now, millions of people in Uganda don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water. Without it, families face preventable diseases, children miss school, and women and girls walk hours each day just to fetch water. Every year, an estimated 3.5 million people die from water-related illnesses—most of them children. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Clean water changes everything: it brings health, dignity, education, and opportunity. With just one well, an entire community can begin to thrive. We focus on practical, high-impact programs that bring immediate relief and long-term transformation to rural Ugandan communities. With clean water, everything changes—health improves, kids return to school, and families thrive.

Since 2010, Wells of Life has transformed over 1,452,000 lives through access to clean water across 30+ districts in rural Uganda.
- 1,452 total wells completed
- 936 New Wells Drilled
- 516 Wells Restored through Operation Restoration (Wells abandoned by other organizations)
- 141 Healthy Village Programs (HVPs) implemented
- $20.5 million raised thanks to generous supporters
- 32.54% annualized growth since 2013

Thanks to the generosity of our donors, 2024 marked another year of life-changing progress, with 64 new wells drilled, 100 Operation Restoration wells repaired, 40 Healthy Village Programs implemented benefiting over 40,000 Ugandans, a total of 204,000 people served with clean water, 3,000 reusable menstrual kits distributed to women and girls, 1,201 latrines, 1,900 handwashing stations, and 959 bathing shelters constructed, 10,732 individuals reached through 96 Jesus Film showings!

1) financial support for New Wells, Restoring Wells or Healthy Village Program funding (WASH)
2) advisory board members
3) skilled volunteers
4) collaborative partnerships and corporate sponsors

Wells of Life is based in San Juan Capistrano, California, USA, and is committed to improving living conditions throughout impoverished areas of Africa, specifically in Uganda.

Every 21 seconds, a child in East Africa loses their life to contaminated water. For girls in rural Uganda, the impact goes even deeper. Many spend hours daily walking to collect unsafe water, missing school, and facing daily risks. Wells of Life is changing this reality. Simple as it sounds, a borehole water well can mean the difference between life and death. It means children won't become sick with waterborne illness. They can receive an education instead of being trapped in a cycle of poverty, spending each day fetching contaminated water. Clean water is a very basic human need and no one should die from lack of clean water.

Wells of Life has committed to not only maintaining our own wells, but we also restore wells that other NGOs have left in disrepair. We work with the communities to provide ongoing maintenance as well as sanitation and hygiene best practices.

Safe access to fresh water is the cornerstone of every working, growing, healthy community and it is a missing resource that is often only a relatively few meters under the feet of dying children. We can drill the necessary life-giving well in 100 days from funding on average, at a cost of $8,000 (every penny donated for that purpose goes only to drilling costs) and we provide the GPS coordinates, a photobook of the dedication plaque and happy children back to the donor within a few months. We don't change the entire world but we change the world of thousands of villagers & school children forever.