My friend Nanette, who started me down this blogging
path, has a whole section on her blog about books she’s read. Since I read
about the same number of books in a year that she reads in a month, I’m not one
to ask for book recommendations… However, I did just read something I would
recommend, and it’s Rochester-related: A Long Walk to Water.
If you haven’t read A Long Walk to Water, you should put it
on your reading list (and so should your kids). It’s a quick but powerful
story, both heartbreaking and uplifting, written by local author Linda Sue Park
about a local celebrity: Salva Dut. Salva endured hardships that are
unimaginable to an American – years of walking, to escape war; years in refugee
camps; and seeing his uncle brutally killed. That Salva not only survived, but
thrived, is a wonder. One of the more than 20,000 Lost Boys of Sudan, he was
taken in by a family right here in Rochester, in 1996. He learned English,
worked at Wegmans, where he won customer service awards, and attended Monroe
Community College. He had been separated from his family, with no knowledge of
their survival, for almost 19 years, when he received word that his father was
hospitalized, because of a water-borne disease that endangered his life. After
reuniting with his father, who survived surgery, Salva had a dream: to build a
well for his father’s village so that he wouldn’t get sick again from drinking
contaminated water.
Although much of the world’s
newest country sits on top of an aquifer that naturally refills in the rainy
season, that water has been largely inaccessible. Instead, it is the task of
women and girls to walk for hours to fetch water that generally would not be
considered potable in America. With the help of St. Paul’s Episcopal and
Downtown United Presbyterian Churches, Salva made the kind of connections for
which the Rochester community is renowned, and turned his dream for one well
into a non-profit that is changing the course of South Sudan: Water for South Sudan (WFSS). Their mission is to drill wells in villages throughout the
country to provide clean drinking water, to prevent water-borne diseases, like
the one that almost killed Salva’s father, and to allow the girls to pursue
other activities, like going to school – something that was previously denied
them.
WFSS was founded here in Rochester
in 2003, and started drilling wells in 2005. To date, 282 wells have been
drilled, which serve over a quarter million people every day. The
organization’s goal is to drill 40 new wells per year, and also to assist in
rehabilitation projects, since some of the original wells are now over 10 years
old. Responsibility and sustainability are the keys to the success of the
organization and the communities it serves. The locals have input in deciding
where to locate the wells, and local maintenance committees are in charge of
the wells’ upkeep. While the lack of infrastructure and the political strife
are challenges, WFSS and the local teams are working with the South Sudan
government to implement the wells, and the conflict is mostly in areas remote
from the villages being served.
WFSS is completely privately
funded, through the support of individuals, schools, civic and religious
groups, and Rotary Clubs. Donors come from all 50 states and 33 countries.
Since inception, they have raised about $6.5 million; each well costs an average
of $15,000 to drill, and the organization has very little overhead. School
groups, in particular, have been extremely effective fundraisers. Students find
that reading the book and fundraising for a well not only connects them
tangibly to the wider world, but also changes their lives and their
perspectives. They start to understand water as a precious resource, they put
their creativity to use in raising money, and their efforts are rewarded with
the knowledge of specific people they have helped.
In addition to providing
clean drinking water, these wells provide the basis for two other basic human
conditions we take for granted in America: hygiene and sanitation. WFSS is
engaged in hygiene education in these villages, for example, teaching locals
the benefits of washing with soap and water, and brushing their teeth. They
have recently started to move into sanitation, and are looking at ways to
provide effective and sustainable toilets (it’s a sad comment on the state of
humanity that more people in the world have cell phones than access to a
toilet). And they have provided the ability for communities in South Sudan to
build schools and clinics, something previously unimaginable, thus unlocking
the potential for the next generation.Clean, fresh drinking water. It’s easy to take it for granted here in Rochester, with our proximity to the Great Lakes, and the 20% of the world’s surface fresh water they represent. It’s also easy to take it for granted that our state will continue to protect the lakes and reservoirs that source our drinking water, for now…
Here's a link to a recent tedx talk by Salva Dut: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWlNdnFicLE
