Email article
Print article
Digg
Del.icio.us
Newsvine
A benefit concert to raise money to drill water wells in South Malawi will be held at 7 p.m. Monday, April 14 at the Celebration Center at 216 Royal in Salado.
Admission is $25 and covers entertainment and an evening meal that includes beverages and wine served in a dinner theater setting.
Soloist David Stevens accompanied by Rick Harney’s Jazz Ensemble from Austin will play Gershwin and Cole Porter selections in a program titled, The Great American Songbook.
St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church of Salado and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church of Belton in concert with St. David’s Episcopal Church of Austin are sponsors of the annual event to raise funds for drilling windmill powered wells in South Malawi.
Under the auspices of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, the three churches are working in partnership with the Southern Diocese of the Anglican Church of Malawi and Warm Hearts International on the project.
Mark Mitchell, executive director of Warm Hearts International, said lack of fresh drinking water has made austere living conditions worse.
“The problem is that most of the citizens live many miles from open water and rely on wells,” Mitchell said. “Many women walk miles to a well and wait in line for hours to get their family’s daily water supply.”
He said villagers have dug pits in dry riverbeds to get to the water table. It is unsanitary and spreads disease after wild animals walk in it, he said.
Mitchell said at the village of Mindanti the first windmill powered well was completed for villager’s use in October 2007.
Previously the villagers used a manual T-Bar pump, Mitchell said. It serviced 1,200 villagers. But the women had to be up at 3 a.m. to stand in line to get their daily supply.
The new well has cut waiting time drastically, he said.
The October well cost about $15,000 Mitchell said. Warm Hearts has $30,000 in the bank from fundraisers during the past two years to drill a second and third well.
One village has been selected and applications for a third village are being reviewed, Mitchell said.
“To get a well villagers have to commit to helping in the project,” he said. “They make the bricks for the pump house and other infrastructure and provide labor for the drilling process,” he said.
Mitchell said villagers must agree to take classes to repair and maintain the wells and attend seminars on sanitary methods of collecting water in clean vessels.
He said St. Joseph’s and St. Luke’s benefit concert has raised about $5000 to $6,000 each of the last two years and that is the goal for Monday’s concert.
Tyler Fletcher, a spokesman for the benefit, said the project came to the attention of the three Texas churches several years ago through Bishop James Tengatenga of the Southern Diocese of the Anglican Church of Malawi. Tengatenga had attended seminary in Austin as a student and called on his contacts at St. David’s.
Fletcher said a silent auction at 6 p.m. Monday will include handmade textiles from Africa, a saddle blanket, from Egypt, artwork by local artists Carol Russell, Larry Prellop and Richard Littlefield and a collection of hand-carved wooden animals from Central Africa.
Mitchell said the entertainment Monday will be well worth the admission.
“Rick Harney’s Jazz Ensemble has attained some acclaim in Austin,” Mitchell said. “Saxophonist Alex Coke is world class as is percussionist Steve Schwelling. Soloist David Stephens is choir master at St. David’s and a wonderful vocalist.”
--hclark@temple-telegram.com