A Founder’s Perspective: Stories from Africa
November 1, 2013
We now have ten in-country programs around the world where we have indigenous staff supported technically and funded primarily through the Water Missions International Headquarters in Charleston, SC, USA. All but one, which is an affiliate program, are registered or in the process of being registered as Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in each of the respective countries.
The majority of the developing world has tremendous need and safe water and sanitation are at the top of all the lists. Africa, the second largest and second most populous continent in the world, has abundant natural resources, but nevertheless, remains the world's poorest and most underdeveloped continent. For this reason, we now have four country programs in Africa, including Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, and most recently Tanzania.
Water Missions has been officially working in Africa since 2002. However, before founding Water Missions International, as early as 1999 George and I responded to disaster relief safe water needs in Kenya and Mozambique as Project Living Water through our for-profit company, General Engineering Laboratories (The GEL Group.) This response helped open our eyes to the global water crisis and was instrumental in our selling of The GEL Group and founding WMI in 2001.
George and Molly visited communities like this one in Malawi.
It took me 13 years after founding WMI to visit Africa, but it was worth the wait. After having to cancel several plans to travel there due to some of the worst disasters in our lifetime—the 2004 tsunami in southeast Asia and 2010 Haiti earthquake—on June 18, 2013 George and I finally arrived in Africa.
The purpose of the Africa trip was to get to know, thank, and encourage our staff in each of the three established in-country programs in Malawi, Kenya, and Uganda. We wanted to personally share the vision, mission, core values, and the strategic direction for WMI for the upcoming years. Our goal was to experience as much as we could in travelling to communities, interacting with the people, and seeing first-hand how we do all aspects of a water project. We were able to meet the Water Missions International staff members in each country and learn from them as many shared their stories with us.
Molly and Water Missions International Malawi staff inspect a Living Water™ Treatment system at the Malawi headquarters.
We began the Africa trip in Malawi, a rather small, but densely populated landlocked country in southeastern Africa we’ve been working in since 2009. What a welcomed sight upon arrival to look up and see Will Furlong, director of Africa programs, usually based out of the international headquarters office in Charleston, SC and Nixon Sinyiza, country director of Water Missions Malawi, greeting us from the terminal balcony in the Lilongwe, Malawi airport.
I’m excited to share more about my experiences and time with the in-country staff in each of WMI’s Africa programs over the next few weeks, beginning with our time in Malawi.
If you have questions or comments, please send them our way. As always, we would love to hear from you and sincerely appreciate your support.
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