This month Pell and Bales are raising money for the Lawrence Roundabout Well Appeal - see below for their story...

 

Lawrence was a normal, bright, happy and healthy boy who had a wicked sense of humour and was mad about football. When Lawrence was six he started to have difficulties with his hearing.

These problems got worse over the next few months and in October 2004 a brain scan revealed that Lawrence was suffering from an extremely rare degenerative condition called Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD). Within six months of the diagnosis Lawrence was unable to move, could no longer talk and had to be fed by tube. Lawrence died in July 2005. He was eight years old.

 

The charity was set up in September 2005, just over a month after Lawrence’s death. The Object of the Charity is "to raise money for the purchase of roundabout wells (also known as Playpumps TM) in Africa". All donations from individuals and companies go directly towards buying roundabout wells.

 

The roundabout playpump combines a children's roundabout with a pump. The pumps are usually installed in schools to harness the natural energy of children. 

As the children play on the roundabout they pump water into a holding tank at the rate of 1400 litres per hour.

 

Each pump can provide up to 2000 people with fresh water.

 

A fully installed PlayPump system costs £7,500. This includes equipment such as the roundabout, water pump, storage tank, tank stand with board, tap, and piping. Set up costs such as a geo-hydro census, site evaluation, water quality testing, community orientation, installation training, transport, and system installation are also included.

 

The first PlayPumps system was installed about ten years ago. Since then more than 1500 pumps have been installed in southern Africa (South Africa, Malawi, Lesotho and Swaziland). Clean water is pumped from boreholes which can be up to 300 foot deep. The tanks containing the water are used as advertising space. Two sides of the tank carry commercial advertisements while the other two sides carry health education information.  Revenue from the sale of the advertising pays for the upkeep of the pump.

 

The pumps are manufactured and maintained by a not for profit company based in Johannesburg called 'Roundabout Water Solutions'.