August 2005 Archives

Filmmaker Amy Hart recently held a swim-a-thon fundraiser for her independent documentary film project on the global water crisis. The fundraiser was held on Saturday, August 20th in Saratoga Springs, New York. Amy and 12 other swimmers swam 3 miles across Saratoga Lake in an effort to raise funds for the film project as well as awareness of the issues. Read press coverage of the event here.

Both the film and the fundraiser seek to focus attention on the reality faced each day by the millions of people in the world who lack access to clean water. While still in its early stages of production, the film aims to put the global water crisis into a context that people can understand and thereby motivate viewers to make water issues a priority. To find out more about the film and about how you can help fund its completion, please visit www.waterdoc.org.

We have recently posted updates to the Our Wells section of the site. Please click the link on the left to read the 2005 Well report containing pictures of the proposed sites in Angola. Also available are pictures and reports updating progress on construction of the 2004 wells.

Here's an excerpt from this report:
“In my entire life, I have shared water with the animals. Our school children have not had a better option but thanks to Africare…with this valuable asset, our communities will no longer experience Typhoid as rampantly as in the past”.
-Rugatsira, Community Elder

The Evangelical Free Bible Church in Clark in Summit, PA raised over $250 for the African Well Fund during their Vacation Bible School Program.

The theme for this year’s VBS program, which ran from June 27th to 30th, was called Serengeti Trek, and focused on Africa. Throughout the week children from kindergarten through grade six learned about life in Africa and the lack of clean water. Raising money for children and families in Africa enabled them to put into practice what they were also learning about love and generosity. A “Water Well” was set up in the sanctuary of the church with a “meter” gauging how much money the children had donated each night. To make the well offering more of a challenge, a competition was held between the boys and the girls, to see who could raise the most money.

Each night, the children became more excited about the well offering. They raided their piggy-banks, did extra chores and asked family and friends for donations to add to the “Water Well”. In only 4 days, 75 kids raised just over $550 in donations which were split between AWF and Wolrd Vision.

The African Well Fund would like to thank Tillie Elvrum, Evangelical Free Bible Church and all the volunteers and children who made this event a success!