Orange & Blue

Issue date: 11/2/07 Section: News

C-N students will "Walk for Water" Saturday, Nov. 3 at 10:00 a.m. to raise money for the "Well for Africa" project. The fundraising walkathon planned by 757, an on campus ministry, will walk 11 times around the Henderson block of streets (Branner Ave., South College Ave., Russell Ave., and North College St.) to help donate a well to a needy African village. The 11 laps will take the students 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). According to literature released by 757, this is the average distance an African woman walks to retrieve potentially dirty water each day.

The students in 757 have joined with World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization, and caught a passion for "A Well for Africa". According to Carmen Smith, one of the leaders of the project, the fundraiser has grown significantly as they have seen the need. For Smith, passion for the project grew out of the fact that "the statistics we were researching…were staggering." Referring to facts from the project's literature such as "every eight seconds a child dies from the lack of clean water," and, "water related disease accounts for 80% of all sickness in the developing world" she says she found herself amazed that something as simple as clean water can make such an enormous difference in people's lives. She referred to the common human condition of feeling helpless to end suffering and that she is encouraged because though she cannot end cancer or other deadly diseases, she can help put in a well in a village that is currently a 10 (or more) kilometer walk from water of any kind. This is something practical that can be done.

Jacob Phillips says the well they donate will not only completely change the lives of people physically but, "not only are we giving physical water… [World Vision will] take the love of Christ" with them wherever they see the greatest need for the well this project donates. Smith added that as she ponders the results of the well, she keeps thinking of the example on which all of this is molded. "How did Jesus get to people?" she asks, "it happened when He reached a physical need" in order to open people's hearts.

Check-in for the walk will take place on the staircase leading up to the Campus Gates on South College Ave. Students can check-in between 8:30 a.m. and 9:45 a.m... The walk officially begins at 10:00. Though little time is left to actually register, Smith and Phillips said that students are welcome to walk in pledge of raising support for the project after the walk-a-thon.

In recent weeks 757 has been keeping track of the money raised so far on a large poster in the MSAC Grand Hall. To this point, most of the donations have been from churches and off-campus groups, with a few on-campus donations. The walk-a-thon is a chance for students to get involved in the project as well. All of the proceeds will go to dig a well that will be hundreds of feet deep and provide water that is nearby and clean, cleanliness being as much a part of water related diseases as the fact that water is so hard to get. More information on the project, the walk, and the needs in Africa's developing countries for clean, reachable water can be obtained by emailing AfricanWell@cn.edu. The project will run through November 29.

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