Our Story

We are Jessica and Kenny, founders of Wells for Hope. For over three years, we have been working towards our goal of increasing the accessibility of water in Nigeria. We, with the generous help of many individuals, were able to donate four wells.

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Although we live in Los Angeles, Lagos, Nigeria, is just as much of a home to us—our father started a business and built a house there in the late 1990s. We visit Lagos during holidays whenever possible. 

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During a visit in 2018, we recognized the disparities experienced by different people within the villages surrounding Lagos in their access to drinkable water. Chief Obanla, headman of a village just outside Lagos, explained that families often journeyed four times daily to collect drinking water from a murky river over a kilometer away from their homes. The water was then stored in large clay jars in front of their homes and subsequently filtered naturally via sedimentation. 

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Conducting more research on our own, we learned that over 70,000 Nigerian children died each year due to unsafe drinking water, and one in six Nigerians were at risk of drinking water that could threaten their lives. We realized building wells was equivalent to saving lives. Determined to help, we gathered our friends and founded Wells for Hope, a team united by the goal of increasing the availability of clean water in Nigeria.