Philip D. Brown

Richmond County Daily Journal

Rohanen Middle School’s seventh graders got a lesson in the meaning of Thanksgiving last week when they heard first-hand accounts of what life is like for those growing up in one of the most poverty-stricken regions on the planet.

Husband and wife missionary team David Waters and Anita Tarlton shared their experiences traveling in the West African nation of Ghana with the students. That sparked some seventh graders to make it their goal to raise money to provide clean drinking water for an entire village.

Tarlton explained for one class Friday that in Ghana, many don’t have the resources to meet their basic needs such as clean water, enough food to eat and medicine to treat preventable disease.

However, she said her involvement with Grace, a young girl born with a cleft palette in Ghana, led to the donation of equipment to provide potable drinking water for her entire village by a Christian organization called Operation Blessing.

“Operation Blessing did manage to help fix her cleft palette, and help her lead a more normal life, but another thing that happened because of Grace is that her village got clean water,” Tarlton told a class Friday. “It’s amazing what can come from things that are seemingly unrelated.”

“It’s pretty sad that they don’t have everything we have, and we should do things to help them because we do have so much,” seventh grader Ashley Spencer said after Tarlton’s presentation. “This made me think about how every time we’re wasting water or we’re wasting food, there’s somebody who doesn’t even have enough to live on.”

She said learning the conditions most people in Ghana live in inspired her to do something to share her own good fortune to be born in a land of plenty.

“I think we should help them, because they need it,” Spencer continued. “We have abundant resources, and they don’t really have resources like we have: clean water, clothes and enough food to eat everyday.

“I feel for them because I feel like if I have more than I need, I should give something to those who don’t.”

Her classmate Canaan Willhoyt also felt better about his own lot in life after seeing and hearing the ordeals those in the developing world go through to eke out an existence.

“I learned to be thankful that we are blessed with what we have, such as I like to recycle and not waste water,” Willhoyt said. “I try to think of different things like water efficiency, and using less water, because I would like to understand what they go through.

Waters demonstrated how a water purification system is capable of providing clean drinking water for up to 10,000 people a day. It costs $2,500.

“It’s important that children know that 1.1 billion people lack access to clean drinking water, and every 15 seconds, a child dies from preventable, water-borne diseases somewhere in the world,” Waters said.

He said the number of people who die every day because of a lack of clean drinking water equals the number of passengers that would fit onto 65 commercial jet planes.

“Children benefit in several ways by understanding this,” Waters said. “First, I think it helps with their world view to have an idea of what kids their age are dealing with in developing countries, and it teaches them a little bit more about their own lives, and how to be appreciative of what they have.”

David Waters also said the holidays are the time of year when most people are the most receptive to this type of charitable giving.

“I think about it 24/7, 365 days a year,” he said. “But for a lot of people, the gift-giving season is a time when they’re more open to things like this, because when you think about it, so many of us have so much. I mean, what do you get for a person who has clean water, who has plenty of food to eat and electricity in their home.

“If we can forego some of the things we are used to having, for instance, I stopped drinking Diet Mountain Dew which is something I enjoy, but I cut that out and now the money goes to provide clean water to children in Ghana, Africa. I think when we can do something like that, it means more to the giver and receiver.”

“I’m glad they can get an awareness of the difficulties in other parts of the world, and that not everyone is as fortunate as we are to have all the things they need to live,” said seventh grade Language Arts teacher Keli McNeill. “When he talked to them about water purification, it kind of really hit home with a lot of them that not everyone has clean water like we do, and I could tell it was the first time that many of them realized that.”

She said that after Thanksgiving, the students are going to begin raising money to try to purchase a water purification system through fundraisers like a dance, a coin competition between classrooms and other methods that are as of yet undetermined.

Tarlton spoke with students about the cultural history and contemporary quality of life in Ghana Friday.

She has compiled some of her experiences from the six summers she’s spent in the country in a book she published called “Two Watches.”

“First of all, Ghana is a very peaceful country,” she said Friday morning. “It was the first African nation to gain complete independence, and remains one of the most peaceful African countries today. This past summer, President Barack Obama visited Ghana, and a lot of people wondered why he didn’t go to Kenya because that’s where his family is from.

“I’ll tell you why he chose to go to Ghana, because Ghana has proven that an African country can have peaceful elections, and when they vote you don’t hear anything about the bloodshed that happens in other African countries.”

Despite the pacifist tendencies of the people of Ghana, Tarlton said they deal with the struggles of abject poverty on a daily basis.

“Their lives are different than yours,” she told the class. “Just like when you go to the kitchen to get some water; you just turn on the faucet and you don’t even think about where the water is coming from, you just stick the glass under it. It’s not like that there.”

She also contrasted the way American families go shopping with the way families in Ghana do.

“We have the mall or shopping center, and it’s heated and air-conditioned, and often has carpeted floors,” she said. “The market in Ghana is very different. They do have a mall in the capital city, and I’ve been to it, but in most villages they have a street market.”

She explained the street market consists of vendors who offer items such as dried fish, fresh spices, clothing or even Western items like soft drinks and processed food.

Particularly dire conditions exist in one community her missionary group works with that is built up around the city dump. There, residents make a living by what they can scrounge from the garbage in the dump.

“They find basically everything they need to live there, their food, their clothes,” Tarlton described the village. “They even build their shelters out of materials they find in the trash ... There are some enterprising individuals that live near the dump that will go through and pick things out that can be recycled, and you’ll see a pile of plastic bottles here, and a pile of aluminum cans here.”

The group is referred to as Abbie’s Kids by her missionary group, and one of their major projects is to provide education for the children who grow up there.

McNeill noted if students are unable to raise enough money to purchase a whole water purification system, this is something they would also be interested in contributing to.

Tarlton said it takes $50 a year to send a child to high school in Ghana.

In addition, if the students can’t raise enough money to purchase a whole water purification system, it is possible to purchase parts for a system and repair ones that have already been donated.

Tarlton sees a parallel between the ministry to bring clean water and a story from the life of the Prophet Elisha in the Bible.

“There is the story where the water is unclean and he tosses a handful of salt in and makes it clean to drink,” she said. “That is exactly what we are doing, and what this ministry is all about.

Seventh grader Brandon Madrigal said his eyes were also opened to the plights of others in other parts of the world from the presentations, even if he’s not ready to make a mission trip himself.

“I think the lower countries deserve a lot more,” Madrigal said. “It’s nice what they are doing, trying to help people have clean water and stuff.”

He recalled the story of one young man Waters shared who got a disease from drinking polluted water.

“They could die from drinking dirty water,” he said. “There’s a lot of dangers that come along with not having clean water.”

“The major thing we want these kids to know is that they matter and they can make a difference in the world,” Waters said. “It’s always on the young to come up with new ideas, and new ways of changing the current way of doing things. I want them to know they’re capable of doing that, they don’t have to wait until they grow up and get a job.”

Anyone else who is interested in participating in these mission activities is encouraged to contact the couple through the Web site for Water’s Edge Ministry at www.weministry.com.

n Staff Writer Philip D. Brown can be reached at (910) 997-3111 ext. 32, or by e-mail at pbrown@yourdailyjournal.com.