Hello all. My name is Mark Callanan. You may be getting this directly from me, but probably from one of my friends or family members. I am gearing up for the Christmas season, as most of us are. Every year I look for creative ways to help someone in need. 

Most often we adopt a family to provide gifts for family members or provide Christmas meals or something like that.

This year I have set a much larger goal and have looked for people with the highest need. I have always been interested in helping a community in Africa, but never knew what would be the best thing to do. I recently found a group that I believe has the answer to helping solve the extreme poverty issues facing rural African communities. They are building freshwater wells and clean water sources in Africa. 

Many communities do not have a source of freshwater so most use contaminated water sources leading to significant disease. The illness decreases ability to work and increases their poverty issues. It is estimated that every 15 seconds there is a death because of water born parasites in sub-Saharan Africa. 15 seconds x 365 days comes to 1,460,000 million deaths per year. That is about the population of Philadelphia, PA. The prevalence of dysentery leads to childhood deaths 520 times more often than in America. 

Also, the water sources may be at a great distance from the community leading to lost time fetching water. Many young girls are not allowed to go to school because they are the family’s “water fetcher.” This typically is a 6-7 hour daily task that is performed with an 8 gallon bucket that weighs 40 pounds. By putting a well in the community, these girls have will have an opportunity for education. I think that we can help. 

I am asking for help to give the basic life need of clean water to our “neighbors” in an African community. We have set a goal of $10,000. That sounds like a huge amount of money, but to get freshwater sources, a borehole must be drilled to a depth of 150-200 feet. The equipment can be expensive to transport to the remote areas they are needed.

Thewaterproject.org also goes in before installation of the well to provide education to the community on proper maintenance of the well and help them understand uses for better irrigation, solid waste disposal, etc. They also monitor use after installation and evaluate further community needs.

Now my sales pitch. I am hoping to average $23 donations from 400 people. $23 is the average that it takes to provide clean water for 1 person for life. I would love if you would help me accomplish this goal of changing these people’s lives for a lifetime. So I need your help in 2 different ways.

First and most importantly, I don’t know 400 people, but the people of the people I know do. If you are willing to forward this E-mail to your friends and family to help me, I would be extremely appreciative. Even if you are unable to donate, by telling others you could be extremely helpful in this venture. By you taking a couple of minutes of time to forward this on, you would be helping change a community in extreme poverty forever. 

Second, please contribute your tax-deductible donation. You can decide to sponsor one person or a family of 10. Please give generously. 

Thanks for taking time to read my message and have a merry Christmas. 

Mark Callanan

Also funded is a portion of an new water source in Uganda; see it by clicking here!