"Scola Kihombo grew up in a small village in Tanzania that had no access to clean water. Today, at age 35, she runs a small company in the San Joaquin Valley that helps farmers find the best sites for well drilling. She lives in Madera but works all over the valley including in Fresno County. She does not know any other women locally who currently have their own well drilling companies; it is a very male dominated field. How she got from her village in East Africa to Central California is a tale of courage, curiosity and survival. Kihombo’s father died when she was 12. Her mother died when she was 15. At age 17, she moved from her village to a larger town to work as a waitress and help pay for her brother to go to school. While working as a waitress, she befriended two well drillers who often ate in the restaurant. She asked lots of questions about what they did and they explained the process to her. When they went to one of the nearby villages to drill a well, she accompanied them. She says she fell in love with well drilling; it was fascinating and it had the power to change people’s lives. Kihombo began working for the well drillers and eventually, one of them sponsored her to come to America. She was 25 and her first job was working for a well drilling company near Stockton. When she decided to start her own company a few years ago, she moved to Madera because it was centrally located. She was also in the middle of starting her own non-profit to help drill wells in Tanzania when the pandemic began. She is now trying to figure out how to jumpstart that project again".
