“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.” – Edmund Burke.
Imagine a third of the 25,000 people inside the boundaries of Washington Township without clean water every day – just over 8,000 people contracting water-born diseases and dying at an alarming rate. That is the situation one third of the world faces every day.
The Rotary Club of Waynesboro has set its sights on making small steps to help with this problem.
About a year ago, Ken Clark visited the Rotary Club to share the success of Clean Water Kenya (CWK), a non-profit that took an interest in several villages with water problems in Kenya. Mr. Clark reported that in some areas with a high content of volcanic rock it is not feasible to drill for water in the traditional way.
Instead, they purchase bucket filters to fill 5 gallon buckets with filtered water. “Buckets cost $12 and each filter is $30.” With an annual operating budget of $18,000, they made a dent in a long standing problem for the Maasai village people in eastern Kenya’s Rift Valley. Their continuing problem – how to sustain and increase resources for an even bigger impact.
Rotary made a one time donation, but the problem lingered in the minds of several Rotarians who were looking for a more enduring way to support a good effort. “Water and sanitation is one of the six Rotary areas of focus,” according to club President Derek Furry. “So this project fits us well.”
That got Membership Chairman Joe Stewart thinking. “We’d had pretty good success recruiting new members, but we’re a community service outfit. The question we always need to answer is what do we, new and old members, need to be doing? Most of that is local efforts to improve the community, but some attention needs to go to international activities”.
And so the recently recruited members of the club decided to do an annual “Walk 4 Water” to raise funds. “The idea is simple,” said activity chair Jeff Rock. “We ask people to do what many Kenyans do every day – walk a mile and a half to a source of water, and walk back with full water containers”.
The first year for this event took place Saturday, June 3, 2023 at the WASHS track. “30 people paid the $30 enrollment which will provide five years of clean water for a family of six,” according to Rock, who added that they also got additional contributions. “By the time we’re done for this year, we’ll have grossed nearly $1,400 to provide $1,100 in buckets and filters.”
The Rotary Club of Waynesboro is planning to make this an annual event. “We hope to draw 100 people next year for an even bigger impact,” said Rock.
Doing a little, indeed.
