Impact · Project Breathe Foundation
Children first.
The expeditions are the loud part. This is the quiet part, and it matters more.
Adventure gives us a platform. This is where we point it.
Everything here runs under Project Breathe Foundation. Its idea is simple: real change does not need grand structures, it needs grounded intention and people willing to stay until the work is done.
The focus is children, and the basics that decide whether a childhood is safe: clean water, food that will not make them sick, a school that works. Not charity from a distance. Work, on the ground, where it matters.
The project · Loliondo, Tanzania
A school, and a quiet water crisis.
Bright English Medium School sits in the Ngorongoro district, inside a Maasai community most people never visit. More than 600 children study there, around 300 of them living on campus, and for years the school fought a water crisis nobody was coming to solve.
In December 2025 we went, and stayed to work on the water project. Venky & Anu both personally supervise the work on the ground.
The water is out of the ground.
Completed 14 January 2026
- A 150m borehole drilled, tested and sealed, the hardest, most uncertain part is done
- A submersible pump installed, clean water now reaches the surface
- Kitchen walls built for two rooms, a cooking room and a store, roof under construction
- Funded by a public GoFundMe and direct gifts. None of it remains, it all went into the ground
Finish it, and hand over a system that runs itself.
The work that concludes BEMS in 2026
- Solar power for the pump and drinking water, essential where grid power fails constantly
- A water filter and safe dispensing, the last link from ground to glass
- Steel plates and glasses for every child, replacing washed paint tins
- Plumbing repairs, running water in both hostels and a line to the kitchen
- A proper stove and chimney so cooking is no longer done in smoke
- Broken windows and glass fixed before the cold
Accountability
Every contribution goes directly to the work described here. Anu and Venky supervise on site, at the school.
On completion we will publish a closing account of what was done, with photographs and records available on request. If any funds remain, we will report openly where they went.
The foundation behind it
Project Breathe Foundation
The organisation all of this runs under. Its philosophy is plain: just the work, on the ground, where it matters. The BEMS water project is its inception project, the first promise it kept, and both of us are part of it.
The documentary
How the Squirrel Got Lines on His Back
When Rama built the bridge to Lanka, a small squirrel carried pebbles, not boulders, pebbles. Rama saw it, picked it up, and left three lines on its back in thanks, marks every squirrel carries to this day. No effort is too small if it comes from a full heart. That is the whole idea, and the name of the film.
Help us close the loop.
The borehole is in and the water is out of the ground. Solar, a filter, plumbing and safe plates are what stand between the school and a system that runs itself. Every rupee goes straight to that.
What's next
Once water and food are safe.
The school's own longer-term wishlist follows as need and next visits allow. No promises of a hundred schools, just the next real thing when it is real.
A vegetable garden
Fresh food grown on site, for children who currently eat ugali and beans three times a day.
Waste & composting
A simple system that keeps the campus clean and turns waste into food for the garden.
A dining hall
So children eat sitting down and under cover, instead of standing outside.
Children first is not a campaign. It is the direction.