Teens to wash cars for drought-plagued Malawi

Teenagers will wash cars in front of Wilton Baptist Church this Saturday; but they won't be raising money for their youth group, for a trip or even for the church itself. The teens will be raising money to help irrigate Malawi, a landlocked southern African nation of 13 million plagued by drought, hunger and disease.

The effort is being led by Gabriella and Chloe Cappo, sisters from Norwalk who belong to Wilton Baptist Church.

The pair came up with the idea of raising money for Malawi after they and a friend spent a week at Gordon College in Massachusetts, attending Passport, a non-profit Christian youth camp which combines a week of camp with local community service and religious activities. The campers are asked to make a donation to a charity as part of their experience. For the past two years, that charity has been Watering Malawi.

The Cappos' friend, Chrissy Delfosse, wanted to more than just give money at camp and the sisters agreed; they would take the plight of Malawi home.

"I've given money for the past two years, and it never occurred to me to do something at home," said Gabrielle, 16. "[Chrissy] really wanted to do something."

Gabrielle and Chloe, 13, put the car wash together in a week, with the help of Anne Swartout, their Sunday school teacher at Wilton Baptist Church. It's not the first time the church youth have raised funds for a third-world nation, said Swartout, but it is the first time the group has raised money for Malawi.

"When we get a good idea, we go with it," she said.

The girls' goal is to raise $200, enough to purchase a treadle pump, a human powered pump which raises water from a well.

Since Watering Malawi was founded two years ago, the group has managed to purchase several of these pumps, said founder Colleen Burroughs, who is also executive vice president of Passport, Inc.

Burroughs, the daughter of a missionary, was born in Zimbabwe and raised in Malawi. As a child, she lived through African droughts, but things have worsened since her family returned to the United States; 14 percent of the population has AIDS and the country weathered four droughts in 10 years.

"Things have gotten pretty extreme in the last 20 years," she said. "It's a different Africa than the one I grew up in."

Burroughs founded Watering Malawi two years ago after seeing a 30-second spot on the news about the drought in Malawi.

Thus far, the group raised $250,000 to improve irrigation in Africa. Much of that money has been raised by teens like the Cappo sisters.

"Teenagers really are trying to make a difference in the world," she said.

The group, she said, has so far been able to dig 16 wells in Malawi. Although that may not sound like a large number, each well supplies 2,000 people with potable water; that's 32,000 people who didn't have access to clean water two years ago.

There is water in Malawi, said Burroughs — the country is home to six rivers and Africa's seventh largest lake — but there is no access to that water for much of the population.

While access to potable water will not solve all of Malawi's problems, it will alleviate many of them, says Burroughs; AIDS patients will live longer, healthier lives if they are not drinking and washing with dirty water. Easy access to clean water will also improve education, she said.

"If little girls are spending eight hours a day getting water, they're not going to school," said Burroughs.

Normally Burroughs, a self-proclaimed "water geek," would eschew the idea of a car wash, which is discouraged when the water supply is low [her home state of Alabama, currently besieged by drought, banned car washes and lawn-watering this summer]. However, since this is not a problem in Lower Fairfield, Burroughs whole-heartedly hopes that Wiltonians offer up many dirty cars on Saturday.

According to Swartout, the car wash will take place this Saturday, Sept. 8, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Wilton Baptist Church at 254 Danbury Road.