Our speaker on March 27th was Kent Miler from the Northwest Austin Rotary Club, who talked to us about their global grant in “Water Wells for Healthy Families.” Their club’s global grant was for 12 water sites in Ethiopia. They had a Rotary club partner in Ethiopia and also partnered with “Water To Thrive” from Austin. The grant was for a total of $60,433 and the project was finished in Dec 2018. In Ethopia, 53% of Ethiopians are without access to clean water. Only 20% of children survive to age 5 - diarrhea leading cause of death. Surface water usually the only source and far away and contaminated. Kent showed us where the water project was located and pictures of area. It was for spring development instead of wells - they capped the spring with pipes to tanks where the area would have water for household use. Ethiopia is working towards clean water sites within one kilometer of the people who need it. This project was working to serve 6000 people from 12 water sites and included water sanitation training. Kent told has the project worked and was funded locally. Before construction begins, each community around the site must be organized enough to form a Water Committee. At least seven persons (three of whom must be women), must successfully open a bank account in a nearby town with a deposit of 1000 Ethiopia birr (about $35) collected from every participating household. This is typically about a three to five cents per month payment. This trickle of birr will continue to become the funds used to maintain the water site for its ten to twenty-year life. Kent showed videos of reception by the locals and celebrating when project was completed. The club also conducted interviews with local women, who were the carriers of the water from far-away sources, about differences clean water source made. The Northwest Austin Rotary Club is working on another global grant for 2019-20 for 20 water projects and would like our club to support this project.