By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
What began as a winning bid at a charity auction turned into a community mission to get clean water to a school in Tanzania.
The result has been that children no longer have to walk half a mile each way to haul buckets of dirty pond water to their school for drinking and cooking. They now have clean water right at their school.
And all it took were the pieces falling into place – Bowling Green residents winning a vacation in Tanzania, visiting an impoverished school, then coming home and mobilizing the Rotary Club, Kiwanis Club and St. Mark’s Lutheran Church to help.
“Isn’t it amazing what can be accomplished when we unite to improve lives of others even if we are separated by an ocean,” said Mojabeng Kamala, who with her husband, Wellington, has a home in Kashasha, Tanzania. Moja is the director of the Welcome BG program.
The Kamalas offered their home for a vacation for six, as part of a fundraising auction in Bowling Green. Bob Rex cast the winning bid, and invited others to join the trip to Tanzania.
Wellington Kamala went with the group, showing them his country, including going on safari and taking them to the school near their home. The Bowling Green tourists saw the conditions at the school, with about 300 students, where the water collection system no longer functioned.
Along on the vacation trip was Alan Sundermeier.
“We went over there without any of this in mind,” he said, recalling the children carrying heavy buckets of pond water for cooking and drinking at school.
“They still had smiling faces,” he said. “It makes you feel horrible when you come home and see the things we throw away.”
When the travelers returned to Bowling Green, they got to work raising money to purchase a rainwater tank and a filtering system that ensured “from the faucet ready to drink” water for the first time in that village, Moja Kamala said.
“Friends and families worked together to change the lives of people,” she said.
Sandra Sundermeier, Alan’s wife, enlisted the help of the Bowling Green Rotary Club, Kiwanis Club, plus St. Mark’s Lutheran Church. The two service clubs and church raised the $6,500 needed for the water system.
“It ended up being a village to support this project,” Sandra Sundermeier said of the Bowling Green community.
And the village in Tanzania welcomed the gift. Not only do children not have to haul water to school each day, but they also no longer get sick from the parasites in the pond water.
“Their whole town came out for the grand opening,” Sandra Sundermeier said. “It’s been a really rewarding project.”
The Bowling Green community was also able to send over food grade containers, so the porridge cooked for student lunches no longer has to be contained in five-gallon paint buckets, she said.
And a collection at Bowling Green State University gathered 500 reusable water bottles to send over to the students in Tanzania.
Other items being shipped over include thermoses, paper and pencils, and for fun – soccer balls.
“I think it’s going to be an ongoing project for us,” Sandra Sundermeier said. St. Mark’s Lutheran Church has helped for years by sponsoring students from the Tanzanian school as they continue their education.
That area of Tanzania has no wells, no revenue from tourism, and very low annual incomes, she said. “It’s definitely a third world country.”
“It’s really been a miracle,” Alan Sundermeier said.
“It took a general to get this done,” he said, crediting his wife for bringing all the players together to accomplish the project.
Alan Sundermeier is also looking at the Tanzanian village as a continuing project for himself. A retiree from the OSU Extension Service, he worked with farmers there to plant edamame crops and shared helpful farming practices.
He hopes to return to possibly work on irrigation systems and maybe get vanilla plants started.
“This wouldn’t have happened without the generosity of the Kamalas,” Alan Sundermeier said, of their original plan to just vacation in Tanzania.
Moja Kamala said the school holds a special place in her and her husband’s hearts.
“Everytime we go back, we always go visit,” she said.
Kamala was thrilled that the Bowling Green community may want to continue its relationship with the African school.
“I would love to have that happen,” she said. “The little things we do can make a big difference.”
Kamala has a dream of one day having a small school library and computer classroom at the school.
“They have never seen a computer,” she said of the students. “Hopefully, that will be the next project.”
St Mark’s will be sharing a video on the water project, Sunday, Dec. 10, at 9:30 a.m.
