Bel Air Crest Event – May 17, 2012

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On May 17, Firouzeh Banki and Curtis Estes graciously hosted an event in honor of Wells Bring Hope at the lovely clubhouse in the Bel Air Crest community. The evening was a great success, thanks to our hosts, dedicated volunteers, longtime supporters and new friends!

From 6:30 to 8:30, guests mingled, dined and learned about Wells Bring Hope’s work. Special thanks to Jillian Ezra of Ezra Productions for her photography and to Daniel Yadlosky for his video work.
Flower arrangements by Bouvardia
Catering by Craig’s Crew

Gil Garcetti, former L.A. District Attorney and Vice President of Wells Bring Hope, kicked off the evening’s presentations by describing his first visit to West Africa. Gil shared photographs and anecdotes from that and subsequent trips as he explained that “water is key” to changing lives in Niger and throughout West Africa. Following Gil’s remarks, WBH Founder and President Barbara Goldberg introduced a newly released video on the transformative effects of the microloans that women receive when a well is drilled. During Barbara’s presentation, longtime Wells Bring Hope supporter Laurie Adami presented her with a check for $5,600 to fund a well. This will be the second well that Laurie and her family have funded!

Following the presentations, Wells Bring Hope necklaces and copies of Gil’s book, Water is Key, were raffled off as guests continued to enjoy the evening.

Over the course of the evening, several guests committed to starting Water Circles. Thanks to the generosity of friends both old and new, we raised over $20,000—enough for close to four wells! Thank you, Bel Air Crest, for welcoming Wells Bring Hope into your community.

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Students Support Wells Bring Hope

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This is the first in a series of blogs that will spotlight the great work being done by schools and students working tirelessly alongside Wells Bring Hope to bring safe water to the people of Niger.

Chadwick School’s Wells Bring Hope Club

I am a student in 9th grade

By Kate McEvilly

I am a student in ninth grade at Chadwick School in Palos Verdes, California. When I was in seventh grade, Gil Garcetti came to talk to us about leadership. He also told us about Wells Bring Hope and the work it is doing to bring safe water to villages in Niger, West Africa. Mr. Garcetti and Wells Bring Hope inspired me because of the life-changing impact that a well has on a village and the way that clean water decreases mortality and improves the health of all the people in the village. Additionally, I was moved by how the well changed the lives of girls in the villages who could now go to school rather than spend their days carrying water for miles and miles. I knew that I wanted to do something to help, so I started a Water Circle with Wells Bring Hope.

In the summer between seventh and eighth grade, I wrote 100 letters to actors, musicians and celebrities asking them to donate an autographed picture or some other item that a middle school student would like for a student auction. Twelve of them responded. I also asked some families to donate In ‘N Out lunches where students could pay to eat lunch with their favorite teacher. My classmates and I put on the auction where students could buy tickets for items they wanted and we then selected a winner for each item. Many of the items that we raffled off came from the letters I had written. They included autographs from Nolan Gould from Modern Family, Rashida Jones from Parks and Recreation, and the entire cast of The Office. We also raffled off a signed script from The Middle’s Patricia Heaton, DVD packages, and more. We raised over $1,000 in 30 minutes!

Once I got to high school, I officially started a Wells Bring Hope club. We went from a club of one and slowly grew to a group of over 25 committed members who are enthusaistic and dedicated to fundraising for Wells Bring Hope. Our first event of the year was a bake sale where we raised $500! This year we held an expanded auction, so instead of only raffling off items for one day, we gave students the opportunity to buy food and tickets for a week. During our week-long event, we raised awareness of Wells Bring Hope through discussion at school assemblies, posters around school, and decorated water droplets placed in heavily travelled areas. We had a donut day and a frozen yogurt day and sold baked goods and drinks during a school event.

We also put the following video together to raise awareness about Wells Bring Hope and the auction.

In addition to Coldplay tickets and drumheads signed by Blink 182 and My Chemical Romance, we auctioned off a shoutout from Fox 11 morning news. Senior Andrew Knox won and used the shoutout to ask his friend Erin to the prom. Luckily, she said yes!

As a result of our week-long effort, we raised over $2,500, and I am very happy to say that we have raised enough money for our first well and have a good start towards our second well! I believe that we have been able to have success fundraising because we really raised awareness in our small community about the importance of clean water and the impact of a good education. Although it sometimes seemed impossible to tie down all of the auction items, we worked hard and saw results. It is simply amazing that the result of all of this is that one village will now have a well. We really hope that other schools, organizations, communities, companies and individuals will gain interest in Wells Bring Hope and develop the same passion that my members and I have gained by learning more and more about the impact of clean, safe water on communities and, specifically, the women and children of Niger.

On May 4, we presented a check for $5,600—the cost of one well—to Barbara Goldberg, the president and founder of Wells Bring Hope. In return, she honored us with a plaque commemorating our efforts.

We are so thrilled to have already donated a well through Wells Bring Hope, and know it won’t be long before we are presenting another check for another well. If you want to help us reach our goal of funding a second well, you can donate to our Water Circle by clicking here. Thank you so much for your help!

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Wordy Wednesday

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{photo by Gil Garcetti}

Mother’s Day in Niger

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photo by Barbara Goldberg

A Recent Study Ranks Niger as the Worst Place to Be A Mother

Save the Children has released its 13th annual State of the World's Mothers Report, listing Niger as the worst country in the world to be a mother. The organization ranked 165 countries based on a number of factors, bringing to light the day-to-day struggles that lead to long term and sometimes fatal consequences in a mother's life. Most factors had to do with malnutrition, a problem that can often be solved by one simple thing: easy access to clean water.

With Mother's Day fast approaching we are all reminded of what it means to be a good mother. If you are lucky enough to have a loving mother whom you cherish, you understand the reason for this May holiday. Perhaps when you're picking out the best and brightest bouquet at the local florist, you are reminded of your childhood and the sacrifices your mother made to give you the best and brightest future. Unfortunately, as this report proves, many women are not given the opportunity to go above and beyond for their children. More often, they fall short of providing the basic necessities for their children due to circumstances that are out of their control.

Here are some statistics that demonstrate the grave state of mothers in Niger and other parts of the world:

-In Niger, 1 in 5 children dies before his or her 5th birthday

-171 million children (27% of ALL children in the world) are irreversibly mentally and physically stunted due to malnutrition

-In Niger, almost every mother will lose at least one child in her lifetime.

-Malnutrition is the cause of death of 2.6 million children a year

-Breastfed children are 6 times more likely to survive the early months of childhood

Nigerien women will walk for miles everyday to find and carry back as much water as they can to provide for their families. Because of this, mothers are often unable to breastfeed their babies, a necessary component of nourishment in the most crucial stages of the babies' lives. Human breast milk provides all the nutrients newborns need for healthy development and also provides antibodies that protect against illness.

This daily journey to find water also leaves no time for women to maintain jobs, earn income, or receive education about health and nutrition. The lack of water in Niger also trickles down to agriculture, making it difficult for villages to grow food and provide necessary nutrients to children and child-bearing women. Nearly half of stunted children were irreversibly effected in utero due to the malnourished state of the mother, often due to lack of clean water.

photo by Gil Garcetti

To put it simply, drilling a well in a Nigerien village frees up roughly 50% of a mother's time. If nothing else, this gives her time to 1. breastfeed and 2. become educated in things like: how to provide long term nutrition to her family and how to obtain the skills necessary for earning an income. These two simple things could mean life or death to a child in Niger, and we can help.

This Mother's Day, we encourage you to see your own nurturing mother in the women of Niger. Take the time to think of the ways you can honor these mothers along with your own.

If you choose to donate in honor of your mother, grandmother, or other important woman in your life, we will send her a customized donation certificate featuring the photo above. Thank you, as always, for helping us save lives with safe water.

References:
Save the Children

Report offers a bit of good news for American moms

Kevin Kilroy is ABC 7’s Cool Kid of the Week

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Kevin Kilroy has long been one of our most inspiring supporters. We’ve been singing her praises ever since she raised enough money for two wells in a single weekend! In the year or so since she became passionate about saving lives with safe water, Kevin has raised over $40,000 and in in so doing, she has transformed the lives of thousands of people. This week, we’re proud to say that we’re not the only ones talking about how amazing Kevin is – ABC Eyewitness News chose her as their Cool Kid of the Week! Congratulations, Kevin! It’s a much-deserved honor.

Wordy Wednesday

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{photo by Barbara Goldberg}

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Crusade to Fight 10 Tropical Diseases

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Crusade to Fight 10 Tropical Diseases
By Pat Landowska

Thirteen major pharmaceutical companies, government groups and health charities will work together in a push to eliminate or control by 2020 10 tropical diseases that affect more than a billion people in poor countries. The partners, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, call it the largest coordinated effort ever to combat neglected tropical diseases.

The government groups and charities alone are committing just over $785 million in new funding. The companies also will work together to speed up development of new treatments, and the partners will work on improving drug delivery and treatment programs, including prevention and education.

“These ancient diseases are now being brought to their knees with stunning speed,” said Dr. Margaret Chan, the organization’s director-general.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the project’s biggest donor, with a five-year, $363 million donation to support research and operations.

“Today, we have joined together to increase the impact of our investments and build on the tremendous progress made to date,” Bill Gates said in a statement, adding that improving people’s health would help them become self-sufficient.

According to the Gates Foundation, more than a billion people – more than half of them children – are affected by neglected tropical diseases, which either kill or cause malnutrition, serious disability, disfigurement and even social discrimination.

The diseases are common in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia and contribute to poverty. They are caused by worms and microscopic parasites or infections, generally acquired from insect bites, contaminated drinking water, or contact with infected people.

In Niger, where we work, three of the 10 diseases on the list, Guinea worm, bilharzia and trachoma are very prevalent. They all are caused by contaminated water. Untreated trachoma leads to blindness. 40% of Nigeriens suffer from it, including one-third of children under the age of ten. Guinea worm lives and grows in a human body causing acute pain, swelling, and itching. Bilharzia is a water-borne parasite that although not deadly can severely damage internal organs. It is the most devastating parasitic disease after malaria.

We salute the Gates Foundation and drug companies for including these diseases on their list. The challenge, however, is getting these drugs to the villagers. In a recent trip to Niger, the Wells Bring Hope team traveled 2 1/2 hours one way over very rough dirt roads, through the desert, to reach remote villages. We will be interested to know what steps are being taken to deliver these much-needed drugs to the remote areas that most need them.

A Shorter Walk to Water Saves Children’s Lives

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By Barbara Goldberg

We thank Wells Bring Hope supporter, Scott Fischler, for bringing this to our attention. A new study by Stanford researchers published by the journal Environmental Science and Technology shows that decreasing the amount of time families must walk to obtain clean water can help save the lives of young children. In sub-Saharan Africa, where Wells Bring Hope works, 84% of the people do not have access to clean water. The Stanford study analyzed data from 26 African countries, where it is estimated that some 40 billion hours of labor each year are spent hauling water, a responsibility often borne by women and children. The Stanford study is the first quantitative analysis of the relationship between the time devoted to fetching water and health outcomes.

“The time that women devote to water fetching is time that can’t be used for child care, food preparation, cleaning the household environment, or generating income,” explained Amy Pickering, lead author of the study and post-doctoral fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. “All of these factors can have direct influence on the health of children.”
The study found that cutting the walking time to a water source by just 15 minutes can reduce under-five mortality of children by 11%, and slash the prevalence of nutrition-depleting diarrhea by 41%.

In Niger, the many women we’ve talked to say that their work time is reduced by half when they no longer have to spend time walking many miles to get water. Therefore it is natural that when women have this new-found time, they can take better care of their children and can use that time to prepare better food. The elimination of hours spent walking to get water improves the physical health of the mother, enabling her more able to address the needs of her children. It also reduces the overall stress level that women experience when they are rushing to get water.

We are very pleased to see that there is now a quantitative study that documents the health benefits to children when there is a reduction in the time that it takes for women to get water.

LIfe Lesson from a Well

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by Barbara Goldberg

October 27, 2011 was the date of Wells Bring Hope’s major fundraiser for the year, and, auspiciously, the tarot reading for that day brought greater meaning to “a well” as we know it. Those of us involved with Wells Bring Hope know that safe water comes from drilling deep into the ground to reach the artesian water level, 250-300 feet deep. Shallow wells typically yield water that is or becomes contaminated from above the surface. The analogy of a well for greater personal understanding is what we’d like to share with you. The message below is a powerful one, and reminds us that exploring the depths of our soul, having the courage to do that, can produce the greatest clarity and deepest personal insights.

From the ancient Chinese I Ching, or “Book of Changes” for October 27, 2011

48: The Well

General Meaning: Throughout various cultures and political systems of the world, the well has served as a universal symbol for that which sustains life and provides a constant, inexhaustible source of life-giving nourishment for mankind.

Like the well, human nature is the same around the world. The passage of time does not change its essential dimensions, nor take anything away. Still, just as a well can be deepened to produce clearer, cleaner water, so can we enrich our lives by delving deeply within — into our natural selves, or souls.

Beware of shallow thinking. Like a little learning, it can be dangerous. The image of the well suggests that along with depth comes clarity. Be patient, and penetrate both your problems and your own nature to the core. If you do not lower your bucket to the depths, you’re very likely to come up empty. When greater depth is desired, a lessening of speed is often required.