Area Rotary clubs, the Loudon County Education Foundation and students from all five middle schools may soon get to see the fruits of their labor for a community in Africa.
The last fundraiser to help construct a water well in the Republic of South Sudan ended last week at North Middle School.
An assembly was held Jan. 25 for NMS students. Lenoir City Rotary Club member Gary Ubben said the amount raised, at that point, was $3,500. The goal is to raise $15,000, with roughly half the funds coming from the Lenoir City, Loudon and Tellico Lakes Rotary clubs.
“So, the Rotary Clubs will supplement whatever is needed in order to reach that particular point,” Ubben said. “It’s my anticipation that we’ll probably end up with about $6,000 (or) $5,500 of school money, kids’ money, and so we’ll be putting between $9,000 and $10,000 — the clubs will put that much into it themselves.”
The amount raised at NMS was not available by presstime.
Ubben said a grant has been submitted to the Rotary Foundation in hopes to help fund the project.
“Each year as clubs we put a certain amount of money into the Rotary International Foundation and then it’s kind of like a bank account,” Ubben said. “We can put together a proposal for a project and we can draw that money back out. So, we have enough money in there so that when we submit this project now we’re asking for $7,500 from the Rotary Foundation, but it’s really our money and our bank account, so to speak, that’ll be returning to us. Then we’ll supplement that with some local Rotary money to make up the $15,000.”
Once all funds are ready, Ubben said the next step will be to send the money to nonprofit organization Water for South Sudan Inc., which will then schedule a time to dig the well.
“They have to drill the wells in the South Sudan in what’s called a dry season, which is December to May,” Ubben said. “They’re already full this year as far as the number of wells that they can drill. So, we’re on their early list for the 2017-18 year, so our well could be drilled as early as December ’17. January ’18, about a year from right now, is when I anticipate the well being drilled. At that time we will be getting feedback from the South Sudan as to the name of the village that our well is being drilled in.”
Efforts began about a year ago after students at Fort Loudoun Middle School read “A Long Walk to Water,” a book written by Linda Sue Park that includes a true story of Salva Dut, a Sudanese Lost Boy, and a fictional story of young village girl Nya. The book was distributed to each school over the course of a year.
About 1,800 students read the book, with the final group finishing about two weeks ago, Ubben said.
“This is nice because it gives us a chance to do an international project,” Tom Bradbury, Lenoir City Rotarian, said. “Rotary’s all about service. We do a lot of local service, but this allows us to do something overseas.”
Ubben said students will study South Sudan next year once the well is constructed. Hopes are by allowing them to take part in the project, students will gain a better world view and the importance of giving, he said.
“It shows them that even though they may think life is tough sometimes that there are always others who have it harder and because your orange juice had pulp in it this morning, it sure beats having to walk 10 miles every morning just to get a bucket of water,” Matthew Tinker, NMS principal, said.
