Walk for the Well

By Susan Matson
Try to imagine this scenario. It’s 6 pm. The kids are clamoring for dinner, so you put a big pot under the kitchen faucet to start a quick and easy meal of spaghetti. But wait—there’s no water—clean or otherwise! H.m.m…there are the neighbors. But wait—they are in the same boat. And to make matters worse, it turns out that in order to have water to drink, or to bathe, or to cook, to clean—you’re going to have to put a 20-pound container on your head and walk over an hour to the nearest drinkable water source. And now: imagine having to do this each and every day, for the rest of your life.
We’ve all heard stories like this, and most Americans wouldn’t be surprised to hear that this is the typical life of a villager in Ghana.  One special village, though, has more than the ordinary level of need for accessible water. That village is tiny and impoverished Ehiamatuo. Through a mission trip sponsored by the First Presbyterian Church of Hightstown a few years ago, local Hightstown residents learned that a women’s and children’s health clinic was desperately needed there to prevent hundreds of needless deaths related to childbirth, and to attend to basic health needs.  With a lot of hard work during trips in 2010 and 2010, the mission trippers and local villagers managed to complete the clinic and equip it with medical supplies.  Locals were so excited that one woman walked five miles to get help for her sick child. But one problem remained, and still remains: without a fresh water well, the clinic cannot operate successfully, on its own. Clean, hygienic water is urgently needed both for clinic patients and for normal living needs.
Working with the Western Presbytery of Ghana, First Presbyterian is working to finance the digging of the well by a qualified Ghanaian contractor. Terri Meier, co-organizer of the event along with David Coates and Dilys Henninger, reports: “We are tremendously pleased that we’ve raised a third of the cost  ourselves, about $15,000. But we still have a long ways to go.” The church hopes to solve that problem with a Walk for the Well event, scheduled for September 29, 2012 at Etra Lake.
All are welcome at the event. Check-in will be from 9 to 10 and the walk begins at 10. Participants may walk anywhere from a 2 mile loop around the park, to several loops. If the event raises more than the needed amount, the extra will go to build another well where needed within the bounds of the Western Presbytery of Ghana (western Ghana).
Having a fresh supply of water nearby has proven over and over to be a life changing event for impoverished people of Ghana. According to a villager featured in a video by Living Water.com,  nonprofit organization working to install wells throughout Third World countries:  “water is life, but it is also change in the health of the community and the coming together of the community for greater good.” For more information on Walk for the Well, contact [email protected].
To donate to the project, make checks payable to FPCH Ghana Well project and either bring them to the September 29 or mail them to FPC, 320 North Main Street, Hightstown, NJ 08520.