Hey Friends!
Thank you for visiting my 2008 walktheirwalk fundraising page. Please consider sponsoring me as I walk 5 K on Saturday, November 15, 2008 to raise funds necessary to build fresh water wells in Twachiyanda, a community in Zambia.
I first traveled to Zambia in 2005 with a group of youth pastors after my junior high youth group had raised money to build a home for a family affected by HIV/AIDS in Zambia. It was a life changing experience ... really. The picture of me with the bucket on my head is from that trip. At that moment I was learning to carry water like the women of Zambia do daily. I was so moved by what I saw and particularly the need for access to clean water, that I shared my new passion with the youth of my church.
They were awesome! Immediately they were ready to raise money and awareness. Within none months we had educated the congregation and raised over $13,000 to build a well and in addition we had encouraged the congregation to sponsor over 50 children in Twachiyanda!
In 2007 I returned to Zambia and in particular Twachiyanda with 13 youth and adults from my church. There we meet many of our sponsored children. I met Utiness and Maybin, two of my sponsored children. Utiness had written to me prior to my arrival about a new well that World VIsion had built in her village. She wrote that the well had made life in her village much easier. When I met her in Twachiyanda, I learned that we had built that well! Her village treated us to a wonderful celebration of thanksgiving and joy. We were treated to a skit where village women acted out life before and after the well. We were told that the village has grown by 20 families since the well was built. We were invited to pump the well and to see how the well has also lead to a community garden. It was so amazing.
As we continued our travels through Twachiyanda, an area of approximately 37,000 people and many villages, we learned that the need for wells was still huge. As of last summer they still needed 110 more wells to fully supply all of Twachiyanda with clean water at a reasonable distance.
Imagine having to walk up to 6 miles one way just to get water for drinking and bathing or drawing water from dirty puddles and small streams risking diarrhea and other water borne diseases. That is what many of the people of Twachiyanda face everyday.
This is really personal to me. I have come to love the people of this remote Zambian community. I have been extremely impressed with World Vision's work there carried out by Zambian natives.
Please help them by supporting me and make a tax-deductible donation on my web page. Donating is simple and completely secure. World Vision will use these gifts to build fresh water borehole wells in Twachiyanda. YOU can make a real difference in life of child and a village for years to come!
To find out more about walktheirwalk please go to www.walktheirwalk.com
Thank you!