Saving African lives, a well at a time
He was just a country DENTON boy
He became a well digger, and he built a horse farm for racing.
But with the sale of a used water-drilling rig a decade ago, his life changed forever.
Now 72-year-old Ken Wood is saving lives in Africa, one clean water source at a time.
Wood’s organization, Lifetime Wells For Ghana, started the first few years just drilling wells in that part of Africa. Since about 2011, they’ve also begun drilling in Tanzania.
They’ve dug more than 1,500 wells in their 10 years. And despite the costs and the challenges, Wood is doing everything he can to keep going.
“When you get there and you see the destruction,” Wood said, “it just changes your outlook on life.”
Ten years ago a mission from York, Pa., came asking to buy one of his company’s old water rigs. Wood runs a company, Lifetime Well Drilling, based in Denton, Md. His company works in Maryland and Delaware digging wells.
That routine life got turned upside down when the mission asked not only to buy a rig, but also for Wood to go along on the trip and advise.
At first, Wood said, he wasn’t so sure about it. He didn’t think he had time to go to Africa.
Then he went to a seminar about two weeks later. The keynote speaker was a man from Ghana, who came and spoke about the water crisis. And that’s when Wood knew — it was a sign, and he had to go.
“I said, ‘ OK, I’m on board,’ ” Wood added.
Wood came out of high school and got a job. He grew up and graduated from what he jokingly called the “school of hard knocks.” But that was nothing compared with what he saw in Africa.
That first well was built in Ghana in 2006. And the people there changed him.
Wood came home and knew he had to keep helping. The group he went with couldn’t afford to keep it up, Wood said.
Now Wood goes to Ghana and Tanzania four times a year, three weeks at a time.
“I just got the bug. I just took over and kept going,” Wood said.
Ben Wood, 47, is following in his father’s footsteps. He made his first trip to Africa with his dad around 2008, shortly after Ken Wood made a commitment to the cause.