Firm sponsors bore well to bring fresh water to Indian village

The completed Bore Well in small village in Visnapathnam, India. PHOTO: David Charles (Image: Archant)

Festive decorations come and go but Cornucopia in Harleston is hoping the gift of clean, safe drinking water to a small village near the port of Visnapathnam, in South East India, will prove to be a much longer-lasting token of goodwill.

In the 2016, the award-winning antiques and vintage centre in Harleston was chosen to sponsor the town's Christmas tree.

But when sponsorship was given to another firm in 2017, David Charles and Glen Philpott - who opened Cornucopia in 2012 - decided to use the money they had put aside for the sponsorship of the tree towards another cause.

Mr Charles said: 'This all came about because we sponsored the Harleston Christmas tree last year because there was no funding.

'This year we had the funds, so we thought: 'Let's put it to good use.'

And they did - working with the Christian charity BareFoot Ministries, the business has sponsored digging of a bore well in a small village in the Indian State of Andhra Pradesh.

Costing in the region of £3,000 the bore well, which was completed in December, now provides a community including an orphanage and church with clean running water.

Mr Charles said: 'It's about doing good for the community. It makes us feel good and we know we're doing good.'

Now the business has decided to make sponsorship a long-term project.

It is hoping to sponsor another well by Easter 2018 and other wells in the future.

Mr Charles explained that a recent few days with a broken boiler had put things in perspective for him. 'We want this first well to be a catalyst for bigger things,' he said.

'We are all so fortunate that we take clean water for granted but for some, a valuable and much-needed water source is not always available.

The business is hoping to raise the funds needed to sponsor future bore wells by holding various events such as cake sales, charity auctions and valuations.