Two Wartburg students will use a $10,000 grant to provide clean water for an Ethiopian village.
Aman Gebremariam, a senior from Ghana and native of Ethiopia, and Sibusiso Kunene, a junior from Swaziland, are among the 2013 winners of a Davis Projects for Peace grant.
Their mission is to provide clean water in the village of Dansa, Ethiopia, through the construction of three 26-meter-deep wells. They also plan to educate the villagers on sanitation to reduce the rates of deadly waterborne diseases like dysentery.
“There is no intervention that has as huge an impact on a community’s development as access to drinking water,” they stated in their application. “Safe water empowers the community to economic progress, better health, and access to education.”
An estimated 65 million of the 84 million Ethiopians have no access to clean water. Ethiopian women walk miles each day barefooted to carry 40-50 pounds of water back to their homes.
“The people live in precarious conditions, and the area receives little rain, and there is limited transport to places that provide modern medical care,” said Gebremariam.
“Since the region of Tigray, where Dansa is located, receives a bulk of its revenue from farming, the villagers can harness the wells for use in gardening or in the rearing of livestock as well as cooking,” Kunene said.
Gebremariam and Kunene began collaborating on the project during summer 2011. They spoke with Dr. Daniel Kittle, director of the Wartburg Center for Community Engagement, who told them about Davis Projects for Peace.
Kittle also connected them with Ed Scharlau, a 1961 Wartburg graduate and retired 3M executive, who works with the nonprofit group Water to Thrive in Ethiopia.
“The moment I found about Mr. Scharlau, I went to read more about him and the amazing works that he has done across Africa,” Gebremariam said. “Then I promised myself that I have to start working on it too.”
The estimated cost of Gebremariam and Kunene’s endeavor is $14,500.
With the funding from Davis, gifts from benefactors like Scharlau, and fundraising (including a Waverly Walk for Water in April 2012), they will journey to Dansa this summer for their three-month project.
They have also partnered with two organizations that will help provide engineers and labor for construction — A Glimmer of Hope and the Relief Society of Tigray.
Gebremariam, who hopes to be a doctor, believes this experience will fulfill a life goal.
“One of my goals in life is to make sure that people should not die from waterborne diseases or any kind of diseases that can be cured,” Gebremariam said.
Kunene said the projects reminds all involved that we are “our brother’s keeper.”
“People living in poverty are presented to us as statistics, thus creating an abstract relationship with those we help,” Kunene said. “If charity became more about engaging those we assist, we could truly understand their lives, and the experience could be transformative, if not life-changing.”
Philanthropist Kathryn Wasserman Davis initiated Davis Projects for Peace on her 100th birthday in 2007, committing $1 million annually to fund 100 grass-roots efforts by college students. This is the seventh consecutive year Wartburg students have been selected for a grant.
Past projects included providing education for all castes in Nepal, boosting education for females in Sudan, drilling a water well in Nigeria, fighting malaria in Guyana, removing land mines in Cambodia and promoting “inclusion” in Iowa.
Kunene also is a Davis United World College Scholar, a program founded by financier Shelby Davis — Kathryn’s son — and Dr. Philip Geier, a former history professor, which provides scholarships to international students studying at U.S. colleges and universities.