Water is Urgent

As the year comes to a close, we want to remind you that water is still basic, and we can do something about it. WiB Board member Michael Guaglione has been moved to do something, and his enthusiasm is inspiring. Please read below why he chooses to give regularly and make your year-end contribution today!

When you love something, you can’t shut up about it. This is true of newlyweds, tech gadgets (AirPods, for me), restaurants, Apps for beating rush-hour traffic, and a million other things.

For me, Water is Basic is on that list. I’ll be on a plane telling a random guy that our team has drilled over 1,000 wells in South Sudan. In a jazz club, when I should be listening to music, you will find me telling my friend how employing local engineers increases efficiency and boosts local economies at the same time. One night, I took clients out to dinner and spent the whole night, explaining why clean water is the first step to educating and empowering women around the world.

Whenever I talk, people always have the same reaction––they love it. Here’s why:

Water is strategic. You can’t do anything until you have clean water. A lot of NGO’s focus on education, healthcare, or business, but water sits at the bedrock foundation of all of it.

Water is urgent. People die every day from dirty water. I used to hear that all the time, but this year I actually watched a little boy battle Typhoid…and almost lose the fight. In the US, he’d live a full life; in South Sudan, not so lucky.

Today, I don’t have big plans. After church I’m having lunch with a friend then I’m going to the movies with some guys tonight. The entire day, I won’t think once about water. But for millions of people around the world, water is the #1 thing on their mind.

For them, water is still basic.

This year, my friends and I sponsored a well that will pump water for 3,000 people until 2050. That means that Amani, the 11-year-old girl I met in South Sudan, will be in school instead of fetching water. It means hundreds of boys won’t fall victim to life-threatening diseases. And it means––this is the best part––that when they grow up, the well will pump out water for their children, too.

You and I never think about water, but we should––even if it’s on behalf of someone else. Please give generously this year-end to our work. We need to do all we can in 2020.

Michael Guaglione was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He holds a B.A. in Advertising from Rowan University and is a co-founder and Creative Director of EyeCatcher Creative, an advertising agency in New York City. Michael joined the board of Water is Basic in 2019.

Do Something. Now is the Time

Recently I showed our award-winning film Ru to an auditorium of middle schoolers. Four hundred sixth, seventh, and eighth graders can be intimidating. 

However, as soon as 12-year-old Jina arrives on the screen washing dishes and walking for water, they are hooked. I love the innocence of kids. When they see one 12-year-old girl suffering all the effects of dirty water - long walks, lack of education, hours wasted, sickness - they immediately insist on doing something about it. 

I refuse to show Ru to students unless the teachers have a plan to do something about it! I know the kids will never be okay doing nothing. 

That is the story of our work in South Sudan. 

South Sudanese and Congolese leaders insisted water was number one on their list of priorities, so we have done the same. Thousands of donors have invested in doing something about it, and because they did, we have completed over 1,000 water projects! 

Over a thousand fountains of hope and health, thousands upon thousands of stories of opportunity, and stories of hope renewed — stories like Alice, who has lost all of her children but is not hopeless. Alice returned to her village because we did something! 

Now she is planting and investing in her grandchild’s future. Hope is a simple thing to give, and it usually involves saying yes to the need in front of us today. 

I encourage you to say yes today to our work in South Sudan and DRC. Because water is STILL basic, and we must finish the job we set out to accomplish. With your help, now, we will move into 2020 fully stocked up and powered up to do something. Our goal is $200,000 by year-end, and you can help now.

Thank you for giving generously this year-end. Millions more like Alice are waiting on simple water, and together we will ensure they get it. 

Water is STILL basic.

Stephen Roese, President and Co-founder 

PS - Give water in lieu of a gift, and we will send you a Certificate to give a loved one. Just choose "honor someone" when you make your donation. 

PSS - Those middle school kids? They raised $1250 to repair another well!

Reporting the Nuts and Bolts

The heart-stirring stories we share with you are made possible by the baptism of water bursting forth from a brand new well. If I could bottle that moment and send it to you, I would.

It's that very moment in our short film, Ru, that always brings me to tears. It did again this last week as I shared the film and our work with 400 middle schoolers from my hometown. Those kids in rural New York are now working on funding a well all on their own!

Drilling new wells and well repairs are the nuts and bolts of this work. So is the work of our lead reporters, BP Friday and Emma Dogga, who stay up late to connect with Carrie in Atlanta across time zones. With frequent technical difficulties, B.P. Friday often treks to another internet source across town to upload reports. He does whatever it takes to get the job done. 

B.P. brought his family back from Uganda in the middle of the war. Why? To serve the people who loved and educated him as an orphan. Friday and Emma are what is best about this country and why we stay in the game together, you and I.

Every project needs GPS coordinates, a list of parts, committee names, numbers of people served, etc. Ultimately, we require stories from the people whose lives have been touched. It's rarely simple, and at times it's been downright dangerous. However, it's what it takes to get the job done right, and it's all supported by your regular generosity.

I humbly ask that you give generously now, as this year closes, and regularly throughout the year. As Evan Shaver, our Board Chairman often reminds us, it's the best investment he makes all year long.  

Water is STILL basic.

Steve Roese, President & Co-Founder

Under The Mango Tree

The mango seeds Portuguese traders spread across the African continent in the 1600s continue to feed hungry stomachs, shelter peace negotiations, and provide shade for eager minds longing to learn.

When the WiB crew saw children sitting on the ground, under the mango tree in Bori Village, being taught by kind-hearted soldiers without so much as a piece of chalk, they started asking questions. These were returnees and IDPs, moms, and children, all looking to make a new start under the safety of SPLA soldiers.

For WiB reporter Joeseph, this entire experience brought back scenes from his own childhood. An orphan and the product of the kindness of others, Joeseph is passionate about education and desperately wants more for the first generation born in South Sudan. So he encouraged the team to follow up with some simple school supplies after the well was repaired.

Officially, the well repair at Bori was water project number 947. But to Joeseph, our well technicians, and supporters like you, the water point at Bori is more than just a number. It’s the well that hydrates a group of children, sitting under a mango tree, now better equipped to learn with simple tools and life-giving water.

Joseph is right, they are the next generation of leaders, and we must do ALL we can to give them ALL they need to lead well. Clean water is the first and best tool we can provide for them.

Water is STILL Basic.

For the children of Bori, thank you. 

Steve

The Crew

The Crew!

I was exhausted. We had $406,000 in a bank account, and I had traveled for 38 hours to see if this local team could actually make it happen. Could this really be a local solution to a local problem?

I walked into Bishop Taban's office to a room full of energy and people. I was shocked. 

In that room was over 100 years of local water drilling experience. They were there to lend their backs, their cooking skills, their experiences, their everything.

Within a year, a new well was drilled and pumping out clean water. One Hundred wells later, they moved five days north to the Darfur border, and through intense heat, slim food options, and even being arrested, they drilled 100 more wells. The need at home was great, but the need north even greater.

Now with more than 1,000 water projects serving 1,500,000 people, that same crew is as grateful and determined as they were on that day in Bishop's office.

Since our very humble beginnings, this work has always been a local vision to solve a local problem. Our all-South Sudanese team has never lost hope, never given up, never stopped drilling. 

Success has always been about resourcing them. Let's make sure they have everything they need to provide basic water to the next 1,500,000 of their fellow South Sudanese.

Water is STILL basic.

Steve for the Crew

clean water = education

My first year of teaching was overwhelming, to say the least. I had all of the tools I needed, but I was not prepared for what was to come.

My class of 27 students had needs as varied as the homes they came from. Some entered the classroom full of hope, others dread. Some wore shiny shoes and backpacks full of new supplies, others entered empty-handed with clothes that barely fit. Not all of them had a celebratory, first-day pancake feast prepared for them. But all of them had water to drink.

In South Sudan, before the civil war, there were more than one million eligible children not enrolled in primary school. Only 6% of 13-year-old girls moved on to secondary school.South Sudanese girls were twice as likely to pass away during childbirth than graduate from school. 

The number one obstacle that keeps children from going to school in South Sudan? Lack of clean, accessible water. 

We are moving from summer into school season. My girls have already started. With all that goes into the start of school, I am mindful of the many girls in South Sudan looking for a close-by well and chance to go to school.

Thank you to all of you who responded to the call to give generously to our #summertime campaign. We raised $32,774 beating our $30,000 goal. 

Let's keep the momentum going and give more water and help another young lady go to school. And another, and another, until we finish the job. 

Educate a girl, give water now!

Steve, Bishop and the entire WiB team, are all so grateful for the generosity of our Water is Basic community, working together, day in and day out, for the people of South Sudan.

Carrie Ward - Executive Director

How Would You Describe Moses' Smile?

"What word comes to mind when you see Moses' face?" 

"Happy," my 11-year-old replied as we enjoyed the recent photos from South Sudan. My 14-year-old said, "joyful."

Happy and joyful are words that come to mind as I see my children bouncing around in an inner-tube tied to the back of a boat. Or when we cool down in the pool with popsicles and icy-cold lemonade before cooking out with our family and friends.

Happy and joyful are not the words you would think to describe a man working in the heat 6 days a week, mud flecks on his face in a land fresh out of a 5-year civil war.

But Moses' sincere smile says it all. A peaceful calm exudes from his eyes just like so many others we know and love in South Sudan.

Moses is a founding WiB well technician who walks 4 miles every day to work. You will never catch him without a smile broader than the smiles on the faces of my children.

He was there when the first well was drilled before South Sudan was a nation. He stayed during the civil war, and now, in peace, Moses and the WiB crew are bringing clean water to communities that no one has been able to reach since before the war.

Moses loves his job, as does the rest of the team. 

Many of you have reached deep and have given extra this summer. We have raised $25,597 towards our #SUMMERTIME goal!

As you enjoy the last weeks of summer, will you continue to encourage our team and fund this valuable work? Let's keep making smiles happen here and in villages all across South Sudan.

On behalf of Moses and the team…Thank you!

Carrie Ward, Executive Director