After working in Ethiopia in the early 70’s, my wife and I had a desire to somehow create sustainable change in the country.  In 1999, our company, Champro Sports, entered into a joint venture with Ethiopian partners, and started an apparel factory to manufacture athletic uniforms for export to the U.S.   Champro Sports committed, at that time, to take a portion of the profits from the factory to start a school.  In 2000, the Champro School was established in Karsa, a community on the outskirts of Addis Ababa.  The Champro School now educates 600 students in grades 1-8.  In 2007, solar panels were installed at the school to provide the first electricity in the community.  In 2009, a mission group from Winnetka Covenant Church spent a week working in the community on several short term projects, teaching the students basic computer skills, upgrading the physical structure and school classrooms, and providing basic medical care.   The nurses in our group found a wide range of physical ailments, many of which were caused by lack of clean water.  The only water source available to the community is one stream that is used for bathing and drinking water for over 5000 community residents as well as their livestock.  Access to this water requires that women and children carry 10 gallon containers over a mile each way to bring water into their homes. Our group decided that we should somehow provide a clean water source for the community.

We were thrilled to find that A Glimmer of Hope has a hydrologist on their local staff and was able to formulate a plan to provide clean water not only for the students at the Champro School but for the entire community. Karsa village is located in the Oromia region of central Ethiopia. The people of Karsa lack access to clean drinking water, which leaves them vulnerable to waterborne diseases such as diarrhea, typhoid, intestinal parasites, eye and skin infections, and dysentery. With no clean water sources, Karsa’s women and girls, who shoulder the burden of collecting water for their families, must fetch water from seasonal springs during the rainy season and distant, polluted rivers during the dry season. Because Karsa’s women and girls spend a great deal of time collecting water, the girls are often unable to attend school, and the women have little time to devote to income-producing activities, such as farming.

Our goal is to change this devastating reality in Karsa and provide the community with access to clean and safe drinking water. Glimmer will work with their partners in Ethiopia to construct a deep borehole well with multiple distribution points throughout Karsa, including Karsa’s elementary school. Access to clean water in Karsa will improve the health and wellbeing of its residents and decrease the time and effort its women and girls currently spend to collect water, which will provide girls with time to attend school and women with more time to work at income-producing activities.