Student asks residents to help people of Malawi

By Letter to the Editor

To the editor:

I belong to Cornerstone Free Methodist Church [in Coventry Township] and we have a project for the people of Malawi, Africa, called Clear Blue. This project is about digging wells for villages in Malawi. People in Malawi do not have any good water and cannot drink, cook or bathe. Therefore, four out of every 10 children die.

Our associate pastor, Rob Blair, who founded Clear Blue, went to Malawi and wrote back to the church: “I saw beautiful little children who already had death in their eyes. They were sick from drinking bad water and lacking medication.” I feel this is very terrible that people are dying by the hundreds each day because of bad water, which has bugs, worms, leeches and diseases in it.

What Clear Blue has done is to dig wells for some villages. This has saved many, many lives. To dig one well, you have to blast and dig until you find water, secure the well, cap it and fit it with submersible pumps (one manual and one electric), provide a tower with two large water tanks and the plumbing. All of this costs $4,000. This is a small price to pay but makes a huge difference in the lives of the Malawi people.

You can save these people’s lives by going on to the Clear Blue Web site at www.clearblueproject.com and find out what you can do to help, or you can contact our church at (330) 644-3937.

Joseph Getz, seventh-grader, Ohio Virtual Academy, Barberton