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Aid For African Children Program
These children and adults in the pictures have gone blind because of drinking diseased water. There is no hope for them to recover their eyesight. This is especially tragic because this could have been prevented by a $3 Filta Straw. Our mission is to provide water wells with safe drinking water in order to prevent blindness and other diseases caused by contaminated water. In the meantime, we also would like to request donations of Filta Straws on our behalf as a temporary solution to stop these preventable tragedies.
We also have plans for programs to aid children in Africa such as education, medicine, mosquito nets, water wells, life straws and food.
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Coast News Group
 Unsafe water moves club to aid SudanMay 25, 2007
By Molly Nance
RANCHO SANTA FE — Fourteen years ago, Dep Tuany entered the United States after living in a refugee camp in Southern Sudan for almost a decade.
Tuany arrived in this country with his wife and four children. He had no college education and little command of the English language, but he did have a grasp of American culture.
“In America, you can be all you want to be, but you can also be the worst person in the world. If you don’t do it right, you can be worse off than you were in Sudan,” Tuany said.
After a civil war erupted in 1983, Tuany fled from his home in the Upper Nile, a state in the southeastern edge of Sudan. The civil war was the second in Sudan since the country gained independence from the British in 1956.
The aftermath of the second civil war has not only left residents displaced, but Southern Sudanese have had to endure mass looting and killings, and communities continue to struggle to survive without the basic, essential component for living: clean water.
Unclean water is costing many lives in the region. People who are not educated about hygiene and sanitation are obtaining unclean water from rivers and old wells.
That’s why Tuany, now executive director of the Southern Sudanese Community Center in San Diego — and studying for his a bachelor’s degree — is collaborating with effective groups of people, such as the Rancho Santa Fe Rotary, to help bring clean, healthy water to his people.
Tuany recently met with Don Meredith, president of the club, and Meredith invited him to a Rotarian luncheon. Members listened to a presentation outlining the effects of the second civil war and the need to distribute clean water to the people of Sudan.
“We made a promise to the local Sudanese living in San Diego that we were going to help their village, because Rotary has helped villages all over the world,” Meredith said. “But little did we realize that Sudan was going to be so difficult and dangerous.”
Meredith and Tuany are getting needed guidance from KUSH, an East Coast nonprofit organization that works toward solidarity in Africa. KUSH stands for knowledge, unity, self-reliance and healing.
According to Belkys Lopez, program officer for KUSH, the organization views the needs of the people in Southern Sudan in a holistic manner. “We’re not a water company or a water nongovernmental organization. We see that by merely delivering water, you don’t solve the problems,” she said.
The first step to solving the water crisis is to obtain donations to conduct a geological survey, which will examine how many people live in a targeted area and how many bore wells — which create access to underground water — are needed.
Meredith said he will need $100,000 to cover the cost of this initial effort, which will take place in Ulang County in the Upper Nile. Meredith said he has already received commitments of $20,000.
According to Meredith, the ultimate goal is to gather $300,000 so the Rotary can buy a water-drilling rig, which can produce bore holes throughout Sudan and other countries.
Once a water system is established, Tuany hopes to bring agriculture to his homeland. With the current lack of plentiful, safe drinking water, people are abandoning their village and going to the cities to live. Tuany said implementing agriculture will encourage people to stay.
“If agriculture is there, they will have food for their children, and will have the training capacity for their own living,” he said. “They will not look for relief agencies to drop food on their own village. They will have something to do every day, they will go to school, and they will work and build a community village. That is my goal.”
To donate, please send checks payable to the Rancho Santa Fe Rotary Club to RSF Rotary Club
P.O. Box 246
Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067
Call (760) 644-6990 for details.
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