New Life Academy Uganda Project

A group of New Life Academy students raises money for a much-needed water well in Uganda.

By: Andy Greder | From the issue: May 2011

Photo: Emily J. Davis

Current New Life Academy project organizers Olivia Tourek, Hailey Brumley and Claire Hawkins sell coffee to fund wells in Uganda.

Two years ago, Liz Brumley needed what she calls a “self check.” The Woodbury teenager had images of conspicuous consumerism in her head during the Christmas season instead of what she felt she should be thinking about: passing on the goodwill message associated with the birth of Jesus.

“I was sad,” she says, “and I wasn’t thinking about what Christmas was actually about, but what am I going to get this person, what am I going to get that person.”

So on top of giving presents to friends and family, Brumley, Ellie Hawkins and Olivia Tourek helped give the precious gift of potable water to about 500 needy Africans. With Brumley leading the way, a group of New Life Academy (NLA) students raised $8,000 last year to help build a well for residents of a small town in Uganda.

“[Liz] wanted to give water to people that really needed it,” says Lawrence Simmons, NLA’s campus pastor. “She didn’t know how or with whom to do it. She came to me and we ran with it from there.”

Poverty, water-borne disease and other factors contribute to an estimated 884 million people worldwide without safe drinking water, according to the World Health Organization and UNICEF. The NLA students and Faith Journey Church in Washington state partnered with the Houston-based nonprofit, Living Water International, to fill the fundamental need of drinking water in poor countries. “For a high school to do what they did, it was spectacular,” says Chris Winter, senior director of development of the southeast region for Living Water, an organization with 9,000 projects in 26 countries.

Without safe water, life in Africa can be very difficult, says Winter, especially for young teenage girls who often bear the responsibility of obtaining water for their villages. Sometimes the girls will carry a 5-gallon jerry can more than three miles to the nearest water source. They return with it, full, and weighing up to 40 pounds. The task occupies most of the day and limits their opportunity to go to school. Compound that chore with others sick from contaminated water and “it has an extraordinary impact on education,” Winter says.

Brumley, Hawkins and Tourek used their school and its safe water to raise the money for those that struggle to have both through “Buy a Coffee, Buy a Well,” a student-led ministry. Every Wednesday morning for six months, the girls set up a coffee shop in the school’s main entrance and accepted donations in exchange for coffee, cider and recipes donated by Dunn Bros. They also set up stands at basketball games and drama events. “Kids would give donations of $300 sometimes,” Brumley says. “I was really amazed at the kids, and how giving they were. It was really fun to see that.”

New Life Academy, a Christian school, is active with community service projects, but Simmons says this effort had student leadership, higher goals and more obstacles. “This was something that was different because it was not an easily obtained goal,” he says. “It required a lot of student-led everything—the planning and the executing, and providing the supplies. There was a lot of frustration and worry when we first started the project; it took a lot of determination to stick with it on the girls’ part.”

The girls needed $2,000 through donations from a junior high sleepover/concert and $1,000 from a choir concert to surpass the $8,000 threshold on the last day of the 2009-10 school year. The well cost $12,000, with the church in Washington contributing the remaining $4,000. A plaque on the well says, “In the name of Christ. Donated by New Life Academy and Faith Journey Church.”

Living Water sent photos of a thankful community when the well opened in November 2010. “There is this picture of this little girl just playing in the water and everyone is clapping,” says Brumley, now a 19-year-old freshman at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. “It’s probably the most overwhelming feeling I’ve ever had.”

The giving, however, didn’t cease when Brumley and Hawkins graduated in June. Brumley’s younger sister (Hailey), Hawkins’ younger sister (Claire) and Tourek have re-started the program, and donations for a second well in another needy village or country have outpaced last year’s rate.

“They’ve streamlined the process and cut costs, and they’ve organized things,” Simmons says. “It’s neat to see another generation of kids get excited about something.”

The older sisters picked Living Water International because the money raised was money spent directly on the project, and they were updated on the project’s developments. That’s the same reason the younger sisters are doing it again.

“We saw the well and the results,” said Claire Hawkins, a NLA junior. “It’s just something that our school really likes to do, and we like to see that we are making an effect in the world.”

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