Parish Provides Wells and Wellness to Ghana

By Kai T. Hill

Jan Kline lets out a deep chuckle from her church office near Seattle.

"We're a wacky parish," she proudly admits, thinking back on what led members of St. John Mary Vianney to the arid, dusty plains of northern Ghana.

Back in 2006, Kline, a pastoral assistant, was invited to visit the West African country by a relief worker and good friend. But she declined to come as a mere tourist. Instead, she wanted to make a difference. "It's no point in going if we haven't done anything there," she remarks.

Members of this parish, located on the outskirts of Seattle, are radically giving, she explains. They have housed the city's homeless right in their church and each year, members travel across the Mexican border to build homes in communities outside of Tijuana.

Kline's high energy and candor is striking from the minute she speaks. "The basic philosophy about this parish is serving people," she says. Kline wanted to know what the parish could bring to the people of Ghana. What they needed, her friend told her, was water, especially in Savelugu.

Like much of northern Ghana, the heavily populated community of Savelugu was plagued by the guinea worm disease. Ghana is said to have the second-highest rate of this infectious waterborne disease.

Residents hike for miles each day to retrieve a few bucketloads of water from a filthy pond shared by cattle. In those brownish-green, stagnant waters live "water fleas" that host guinea worm larvae. When ingested by humans, the larvae grow into meter-long worms that penetrate organs and painfully emerge through the skin to exit the body. Guinea worm can be physically and economically debilitating, especially in a region were villagers depend on farm labor.

A Driven Parish

Providing relief in Savelugu meant building a mechanized well and water pump that came with a price tag of about $20,000. But Kline and members of St. John Mary Vianney were ready for the challenge.

Kline and her husband kicked off the fundraiser by contributing monthly. She later placed a small electric water pump outside of her office to symbolize the project and watched money pour in from parishioners. Kline remembered how an elderly, retired woman wrote a check after noticing the pump.

"This was one of those Holy-Spirit moments when God is telling you to go for it and don't worry about how much it will cost," says Kline. Families held barbecues to help raise funds and students wrote appeal letters to their families and friends.

"People are troupers," Kline says, noting that the church had raised the money within five months.

The parish later connected with Catholic Relief Services and other relief organizations—including a Wisconsin-based group called Water in Africa Through Everyday Responsiveness (WATER)—to build the well and establish a management system.

"We want to be engaged with CRS," says Kline. "CRS is transparent. We are Catholic."

Having worked in the region for decades, CRS trained village leaders to maintain the well and developed a water management system for the community to adhere to. Soon after, Kline and her parish group flew to the capital, Accra, and traveled along a bumpy red-dirt road to reach Savelugu.

They were welcomed by a crowd of villagers, some of whom performed a traditional dance in gratitude for the well. The greater reward for Kline and her group was drinking fresh, clean water from a cassava gourd.

However, she said that she felt a trio of emotions: "You feel on the one hand proud that you were able to build them a well, humbled because of the thanksgiving, but also a righteous indignation that people have to be thankful for water."

A Well of Good

The marathon effort to raise funds is why Kline describes her parish as "a crazy place." But Savelugu was just the beginning of their journey.

Over the last three years the church has helped CRS build 12 additional hand-pump wells in rural areas of northern Ghana. One of the greatest outcomes has been seeing the cases of guinea worm disease dramatically diminish in places where freshwater wells have been built. In 2007, Savelugu had fewer than 30 reported cases of guinea worm disease—compared to 520 in 2006.

Over the years, CRS has provided latrines, and access to water and hygienic sanitation in 41 communities in Ghana. Thomas Awiapo, a native of northern Ghana and a frequent speaker at parishes around the United States, says that water is the country's most basic need. "Water is life for them," he says.

"We try to educate the community on personal hygiene and dental care, but without water, there's no use," Awiapo says. Moreover, access to clean water allows parents to cook cleaner food for their families. Instead of walking miles each day to fetch water, young girls are able to stay in school and mothers are able to spend time tending to the farm or selling their goods at the market.

The wells didn't come absolutely free to the districts in which they were placed. Each year, the community must contribute at least 5 percent of the cost of the well for maintenance and repairs. For Savelugu, this amounted to about $1 from each of its residents who use the well. "Residents want to feel that they own the borehole," says Awiapo.

In October 2008, the parish presented CRS with a $72,000 check to build another six hand-pump wells by summer of 2009.

"You can throw money at any problem," Kline says. "But I feel it's about empowerment and responsibility."

Kai T. Hill is an associate web producer for CRS. She works at the Baltimore headquarters.