Sonya Mendez, from the Rotary Club of West Pearl Harbour in Hawaii, visited us as a Guest, last Thursday
It was, when she was with another Hawaiian Rotary Club, when she decided to involve herself, with the Polio Eradication program, in a Third World Country
She went to a village called, in Ethiopia, Africa. While she was there, assisting with the Salk vaccination, she had a chance meeting with a Village Elder. He explained, that the biggest challenge that they had, was that, the women & children, had to travel many miles every day, to collect water in plastic barrels & buckets
As well as Polio, they had many other diseases due to dirty local water, also used by animals. It was then at Gilo - Aeo she decided, to talk to her Rotary Club about fund raising to build a water well, locally for the village and then set about raising US $60,000 and the project got under way.
Sonya subsequently visited the village annually, for the next five years, as many wells drilled were too deep or were dry. Finally in the fifth year, on 16 March 2010, they struck water at 1,000 feet deep. The well became known as The Well of Hope.
Today, it is still producing sufficient water for 16,000 persons in Gilo - Aeo & three other local villages
Currently her current Club has only 17 me
mbers & their main focus is offering annual Scholarships to Schools in Hawaii.