Water is Life

Update For the ‘Water is Life’ Campaign:

June 2025

In late 2023, we launched one of our most ambitious charitable initiatives to date: delivering over 100 freshwater wells across five African countries—Kenya, Uganda, Cameroon, Somalia, and Zimbabwe. 

Today, we are proud to report that these wells are not only completed but are actively providing clean, life-changing water to over 250,000 people. The impact is real, and it’s profound—reducing illness, improving access to education (especially for girls), and empowering communities to build healthier, more sustainable futures.

This would not have been possible without the generosity of our incredible global community. We are deeply grateful to every viewer who contributed, as well as to our dedicated nonprofit partners and the local communities who worked alongside us to bring these projects to life.

We also want to take a moment to correct some inaccurate information that has circulated online. Based on direct communication with our trusted partner organizations, to the best of our knowledge, all of the wells funded through this initiative are operating as intended and continue to serve their communities. 

If any community is experiencing an issue that has not yet been addressed, we welcome their feedback and are committed to providing a timely response to ensure continued access to safe water.

Our Development Model

Beast Philanthropy is fully committed to helping alleviate suffering wherever and whenever we are able. Our goal is not only to provide aid but to empower others to take action in their own communities. Sustainable change comes from people who are driven to make a difference, and we are committed to being a catalyst for that movement.

We believe the most effective and efficient use of our resources is to focus on community-based projects that help lift communities in a sustainable and persistent way, while educating our audience as to the issues that challenge humanity, and inspiring them to show empathy, kindness, and generosity to others.

One of our main focusses is facilitating access to clean water – something everyone needs to survive. Beyond being a biological necessity, improving access to clean water is one of the most powerful and immediate ways to uplift a community. It not only reduces the spread of waterborne illnesses but also transforms the daily reality for millions of girls who are often tasked with fetching water—sometimes walking for hours each day to reach contaminated sources. When clean water is available nearby, these girls can go to school instead of sacrificing their education to meet their family's basic needs. This simple shift dramatically alters the trajectory of their lives.

Access to clean water is a catalyst for gender equality. It restores time and opportunity to girls and women, enabling them to pursue education, participate in the workforce, and contribute to their communities. It also improves maternal health outcomes and reduces the physical burden of water collection, which disproportionately affects women.

Clean water also supports food security by enabling sustainable farming and irrigation practices. Families can grow more food, improve their nutrition, and increase household income. In this way, clean water breaks the cycle of poverty—empowering families, advancing gender equality, and opening the door to a future where every child, regardless of gender, has a chance to learn, grow, and thrive.

At Beast Philanthropy, we are committed to making this valuable resource accessible to more communities around the world by funding and building water wells that will provide clean and safe drinking water to tens of thousands of people across the globe.

Water is Life Well Project

In November, 2023, we funded the construction of over 100 wells in Cameroon, Kenya, Somalia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe, ensuring that each project was tailored to the specific needs of each community.

Different communities required different solutions. Some wells are deep mechanical boreholes that serve large populations. Others are smaller, hand-operated pumps designed for lower water demand and limited infrastructure. This approach reflects global best practices for rural water access. By working in close collaboration with trusted, on-the-ground community partners (see below) we constructed over 100 wells, providing safe, clean drinking water to schools, hospitals and villages in five different African countries to hundreds of thousands of people.

Sustainability and Community Empowerment

To ensure long-term sustainability and self-reliance, each water project was intentionally paired with a robust community empowerment strategy. From the outset, the goal was not only to provide access to clean water, but to equip local communities with the skills, knowledge, and systems needed to maintain and manage the resource independently for years to come.

Training was delivered both during and after construction, emphasizing hands-on learning tailored to reflect local needs, and be sensitive to cultural norms and community expectations. 

Rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach, our nonprofit partners worked closely with local leaders to design training that was relevant, respectful, and practical. From technical skills like pump maintenance and solar system repairs to water conservation practices and inclusive committee governance, each training program was adapted to ensure long-term ownership and sustainability within the unique context of each community.

While each project had unique requirements, our trainings were anchored in the following areas:

Infrastructure and Technical Maintenance Training

Water Management Committee (WMC) Training

Environmental and Safeguarding Training

Financial Sustainability Planning

As one example, in Cameroon, our delivery partner—Community Development Volunteers for Technical Assistance (CDVTA)—tells of how the community has been empowered by the training it received. Community members were trained on grassroots fundraising techniques to support ongoing well maintenance. As a result, all of these wells are currently well-maintained and fully operational thanks to the dedicated efforts of local school authorities and community members.

By embedding training, leadership, and technical capacity into the heart of each project, we are helping shift the model from charity to self-sufficiency—ensuring that clean water access is not just delivered, but sustained by the community itself.

Local Ownership

Following construction and training of community members, ownership and operation of the projects was handed over to the local community.

This model is critical to long-term success. By transferring ownership to the communities themselves—after providing locally sensitive technical training, maintenance education, and governance support—we help ensure that the wells are not just built, but sustained.

Local ownership fosters ongoing engagement, accountability, and pride. It means that community members are empowered to monitor usage, organize repairs, and establish systems for upkeep—often through water committees or cooperative models. This approach increases resilience, ensures faster response when challenges arise, and builds local capacity rather than creating dependence on outside supports.

Ongoing Project Support

While our project partners aim to train communities to be fully self-sustaining in the longer term, we know it’s important to provide repair and maintenance support, especially in the early years following construction as the community reaches a point of self-sufficiency. 

That’s why ongoing maintenance and repair support is provided for many projects, depending on the partner organization and type of well installed. 

For example, the 31 projects in Uganda included the establishment of a Water Use Committee in each community to coordinate ongoing maintenance, including calling upon Wells of Life’s repair team, if needed. This is important as sometimes the wells do go offline for maintenance as part of the requirement to maintain and repair machinery.

For the projects in Cameroon, our delivery partner Community Development Volunteers for Technical Assistance, monitors all projects for two years post-construction, providing any maintenance or repairs as needed. 

In light of unsubstantiated speculation online about the current status of the funded projects, we have been in touch with all our partner organisations and asked them to verify that all projects are operational and in good working order.  

To the best of our knowledge, all of the wells funded through this initiative are operating as intended and continue to serve their communities. If any community is experiencing an issue that has not yet been addressed, we welcome their feedback and are committed to providing a timely response to ensure continued access to safe water.

A sample of our Partners

Wells of Life is a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide rural Ugandans access to safe, clean water through the installation or restoration of sustainable borehole water wells and WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) educational programs.​ 

Community Development Volunteers for Technical Assistance (CDVTA) is a legally registered development charity in Cameroon which focuses on providing basic services for disadvantaged children, women, youths, people with disability and the elderly.

United Mission for Relief & Development (UMR) is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization focused on providing disaster relief and recovery services to the underserved both domestically in the U.S. and internationally across the globe. UMR drills and rehabilitates boreholes and solar-powered wells in water-scarce regions of Kenya, Somalia, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. 

Outcomes

Thanks to the partnership between MrBeast, local communities in Africa and our partner organizations who helped deliver the projects, hundreds of thousands of people in Africa now have safe access to clean drinking water. 

Key Metrics:

Beyond the delivery of critical freshwater infrastructure projects, MrBeast is able to raise awareness on key social issues like freshwater scarcity to a large audience. Through his YouTube channel, with its 400+ million global subscribes, MrBeast promotes making charitable giving more accessible and engaging for demographics that traditional philanthropy often struggles to reach—particularly younger viewers. For example, the 100 Wells in Africa video alone has been viewed more than 244 million times on YouTube. 

MrBeast remains committed to transparency, accountability, and long-term community impact. We are proud of the work done and will continue to monitor and support the sustainability of every well.