Burnfield plans aid trip

Come fall, a local woman will make her fourth Water For People journey - this time as a group monitor and World Water Corps volunteer.

Marei Burnfield, of Elizabeth Township, will return to Malawi, Africa, for 16 days in October to lead a team of volunteers assigned to examine, through personal interviews with community members and visual inspections, whether water and sanitation infrastructure is being managed as designed on past Water For People projects.

The agency is a nonprofit organization that helps provide poor, rural areas in developing countries with access to safe drinking water, adequate sanitation and hygiene education.

World Water Corps, and independent arm of Water for People, provides support for agency projects, engaging in such activities as mapping, monitoring past projects and evaluating program effectiveness.

Burnfield, formerly of Webster, visited Honduras in February 2007 and April 2008, and Malawi in October 2007. She raised about $4,000 locally for those projects.

Having observed the clean water systems and sanitation processes in both countries, Burnfield said she wanted to do something more tangible.

"I was so touched by the impact Water For People was making in Honduras and Malawi that I inquired about a monitoring assignment in the upcoming tour of Malawi," Burnfield said. "I was already aware that the technology in Malawi was different from that in Honduras.

"In July, I asked the corps' committee if they had selected the monitor and received an e-mail stating that over 100 people had applied, and that they were selecting six."

The next day, Burnfield received an e-mail asking if she was still available for the assignment and if she would accept a lead position.

"I was thrilled," she said.

Burnfield is a member of Monessen Lions Club. She said Lions clubs in District 14-E have contributed more than $3,000 to be delivered to the SightFirst Hospital which is supported by the Lions Club of Blantyre, in Malawi.

World Water Corps volunteers are responsible for all their travel and lodging expenses.

Burnfield is looking forward to the opportunity and another chance to work among people in Third World communities who openly express gratitude for the gift of clean water.

"There are so many stories that are so very touching, like a woman who reached out to me in a crowd as we left a hygiene awards program in the Ntenje communities of Malawi and pleaded simply for soap," Burnfield said. "The memory is as vivid as if it was just yesterday; her arm and hand outstretched to me."

"She is the reason I sent, with the support of my employer, Pennsylvania American Water, 300 bars of soap to the village when I returned home," Burnfield said. "I can only hope she received one of them."