Clean water is just $32,000 away
As soon as they know how to walk, kids in Nigeria are required to fetch water, sometimes taking four to five hours out of their days. The Wanted Children Foundation and Gospel Blues Productions – both Chilliwack charities – are working together to provide Nigerians with easy access to clean water.
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Updated: August 17, 2009 9:27 AM
Poverty stricken Nigerians could soon get easy access to clean water thanks to two of Chilliwack's charitable foundations.
Gospel Blues Productions, which organizes Chilliwack's annual Back to the Blues festival, and The Wanted Children Foundation, which operates an orphanage, a feeding program and a medical clinic in Abia State, Nigeria have joined forces to raise enough money to send a water rig to Nigeria to build wells for those in need.
So far, they've raised $28,000; $25,000 of which came from this year's blues festival profits. They still need $32,000 more.
"As soon as these kids are old enough to walk, they're carrying water," said Steve Anderson of The Wanted Children Foundation. "They're walking with five-gallon pails on their heads, full of water ... four to five hours a day."
But it's not good water they're carrying.
"It's green, milky, slow, slow moving water," said Anderson, cringing at the thought. "It's full of microbes, guinea worm, hook worm ... 80 per cent of the sickness that hits children out there would be gone if they could just get clean water."
A water drilling rig would get them that water.
Fundraising for the water project was a natural fit for Cary and Murray Moore, founders of the Back to the Blues festival.
The father-son team, who own Valley Water Ltd., have been in the water business since 1990, providing locals with pure water, as well as setting up water purification systems elsewhere in the world. They know the value of clean water, and have seen the devastating effects of not having clean water.
"The whole purpose of Back to the Blues, right from the beginning, was to use it as a fundraiser for water projects," said Cary. "Our dream all along was for us to have our own water drilling rig."
And by connecting with The Wanted Children Foundation, they'll have an already established team on the ground, ready to operate the rig.
A group of Chilliwack residents have already committed funds to drilling individual holes, approximately $6,000 per hole, now "we just need the rig to get her going," said Anderson. "We've got to get the truck paid for and get her going."
The Chilliwack charities are hoping to entice Chilliwack residents and businesses into donating to the project, "so that the kids will have the time to actually be kids."
Healthy kids.
For more information, or to donate, call 604-792-4191.
krobinson@theprogress.com
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