After several successful Paths of Native Africa fundraisers– Dogon Dust Buster and Water is Life– Paths of Native Africa financed a well in Mali for the villagers of Tereli. The funds were delivered in 2005 and work began the winter of 2006. The well was dug in Dogon Country, on the southern face of the Bandiagara Escarpment. The well serves the Dama section of Tereli the eastern most area of the village. UNESCO inscribed this area inhabited by the Dogon people as a World Heritage site in 1989. It is noted for its Dogon culture and architecture.

The Dogons are an agro-pastoral society. They use an integration of livestock (commonly short-haired sheep (Toronké), goats and zebu) utilizing traditional farming methods. Millet, sorghum, fonio (used for coucous), beans and ground nuts (an African variety of peanut) are grown during the rainy season. Onions and hot peppers are painstakingly cultivated and watered daily during the dry season. The fields on the plain adjacent to the cliff is range land for zebu and goats. The Fulani herders water the animals belonging to the Dogons at the local well and the fertilizer ensures a good crop as long as the rain is sufficient.

Major problems are possible for the Dogon Farmer: water shortage and crop pests.

Although the country of Mali contains 4 % arable land and Dogon Country lies in a Sahelian zone it has a climate of extremes and receives between 250 and 500 mm of rainfall during the three month rainy season, followed by months of temperatures near 40 degrees C. (110 degrees Fahrenheit). Typically during the life span of a Dogon he/she will experience two devastating droughts; consequently the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations reports there is an incidence of 25 to 35 percent undernourishment in Mali.

The provision of clean water resources for this region of Africa is part of the UNESCO millennium Goals.
Paths of Native Africa recognizes that water is essential to achieving these goals.
The well funded is accessible to all who pass. Water is drawn by bucket; the well is intentionally not sealed.

The well was started during the first months of 2006. The usual practice in Dogon Country is to start the digging during the winter months when there are fewer important life-sustaining activities to tend to, then to dig more during the dry season to ensure a constant source of water.

The well was hand dug with a shovel by men from Tereli. The clay-like soil was placed in two one gallon buckets and hauled up hand over hand. The soil from the hole was formed into a round concentric berm. This anomaly in the flat land signals to any usual inhabitant that there is some man-made change. The well-master was from Youga Nah, a small village on a separate sandstone plateau on the Seno Plain approximately 20 miles away.

The well is a collar like construction, and was created by filling cement and sand and gravel into metal forms which are semi circular halves to form a ring. The mason cast these shapes to form the lasting cylindrical well by digging and successively adding the rings one beneath the other.

The well is approximately 30 to 40 feet deep with a borehole of approximately six feet in diameter.