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The Dream in the Workshop.
Once upon a time, a guy in Texas had a literal dream.
What if water could reach people who didn’t have easy access? What if the drill was small enough to carry by hand — and simple enough for people to drill on their own?
That dream belonged to R.C. Crawford.
R.C.’s family knew drilling. His dad ran a drilling company in Tennessee. R.C. knew, deep down, that water changes everything — that water IS the starting line to opportunity.
“Build it first.
Name it later.”
R.C. had already built a successful career. Most people would have slowed down after retirement.
But the morning after his dream, he couldn’t shake it loose. Not just an idea. Not just a sketch. A vision of a drill that could bring water to people who needed it most.
So he did what builders do.
He walked out to his workshop. And started building. No logo. No nonprofit. No headlines. Just a man and a workshop — and something he believed could matter.
The Thing He Built.
It didn’t look like the giant rigs most people imagine. That was the point.
Instead of heavy steel, R.C. used PVC. Lighter. Simpler. He used physics to his advantage. The drill could be carried by two people. Operated by two. Learned in a week.
A tool designed not for giant corporations — but for communities.
The first versions were hand-built in a small shed. No factory. No engineering team. Just persistence, testing, redesigning, trying again.
As the drill evolved, R.C. realized something even bigger.
The problem wasn’t only water. It was the system around it.
Most organizations drilled wells and left. When something broke, communities had no training, no ownership, no way to maintain what had been installed for them.
R.C. believed there had to be another way. What if communities were taught to locate water and drill their own wells? Repair them. Expand them. Teach others.
That idea became bigger than a drill. It became a movement.
Patents for
Humanity
The Power of One, Multiplied.
Big movements don’t always begin with giant crowds. Sometimes they begin with a conversation.
R.C. and Jim Forbis started talking about what could happen if communities were trained to use the drill themselves. Not someday. Now.
They got on a plane and traveled to India. They carried a belief that local people could build lasting change in their own communities.
Instead of drilling wells for people — they trained teams to drill wells themselves. Local leaders. Local knowledge. Local ownership.
In Pipili, Odisha, the vision took root through Bibhuti and his team.
What was once an invention is now operated locally, independently, and at scale. They run the patented Crawford Drill on their own schedule, in their own communities.
Nearly 700 wells later, Pipili is one of OMW’s most active examples of generational impact in motion.
A crew of six can change a village. A trained village can change a region. The math compounds.
As communities gained water, new needs came into focus. Schools. Food systems. Care for children without families.
Jim Forbis, Mike Owens, and Kelly built what the drill made possible — the support, the schools, the kids without a crew.
Just the Beginning.
A Texas dream now reaches across the world. 1,000+ wells. 12 countries. An all-women’s crew. The Nakivale Refugee Settlement. Tilapia ponds. Gardens. Food systems.
And R.C.? Still in the shed. Still building.
This is only the beginning.