YouTube content creator James ‘MrBeast’ Donaldson took to Twitter (X) over the weekend to share that he had built 100 wells across Africa.
MrBeast, who is the most subscribed individual on YouTube with 207 million subscribers, had originally teased the “project” on Friday when he posted he was excited to share the video.
“We’ve spent over 8 months working on tomorrow’s video and it’s the greatest thing I’ve ever done,” he said. “So excited for you all to watch it.”
Then on Saturday he shared, “We built 100 wells in Africa, Go Watch :D.”
We built 100 wells in Africa, Go Watch :D
— MrBeast (@MrBeast) November 4, 2023
The video sees the YouTuber and his team travelling across the continent supplying fresh water for the disadvantaged.
“Combined, these 100 wells are gonna give over half a million people fresh water to drink,” he said at the beginning of the video after uncovering the first well in Kenya.
He also updated some schools in the country with brand new computers before jetting off to Zimbabwe where they built several more wells and gave away bikes to school children. They also went across to Uganda, Somalia and Cameroon.
Thirty minutes after he announced that the video was up, MrBeast noticed some negative comments and took to Twitter to add, “I already know I’m gonna get cancelled because I uploaded a video helping people, and to be 100% clear, I don’t care.
“I’m always going to use my channel to help people and try to inspire my audience to do the same 😅❤️”.
X users then flooded the comments with their views on the videos.
“We live in a hell where YouTubers build wells in Africa for content and we’re expected to be happy about it,” posted @reel_emma_stone.
@checkmatearts added, “@MrBeast if you have the money do something else. maybe a rainwater collector, Better irrigation system or underground rain water storage tanks. wells might not be a good idea for a already dry place.”
@4fwzyh posed a question that many others shared, “The question is would you have built those 100 wells in ‘Africa’ (the 2nd largest continent on the planet - great specificity), if you didn't have cameras around you and couldn't tell a soul about it?”