The Well Project

When you need water for bathing, cooking, cleaning, or drinking, you walk to a faucet and turn the handle. When dwellers of some Ethiopian or Ugandan villages need it, they take a long and dangerous walk to a small pool that may well be lethally contaminated by natural and man-made waste.

Stop and think for a moment how important water is in maintaining a healthy, functioning city. What would Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, or Atlanta be like without a steady supply of potable water? An unpleasant thought, to be sure. But what for us is merely an unpleasant thought experiment is for millions of people around the world a grim reality.

In 2004, YouthInkwell Publishing Executive Director Jennifer Sarja took a trip to Ethiopia and Uganda with Save the Children's Women's Empowerment Program, and was shocked to see scenes that those of us in countries with stable infrastructures can only imagine: children hauling water instead of attending school, little girls forced to hard labor due to crushing economic conditions, and widespread disease. Even tuberculosis, an ailment most of us in the Western world relegate to the realm of nostalgic Victoriana, is a major problem in sub-Saharan Africa.

Though it won't cure every social and economic woe in the region, building wells is an important first step towards a strong infrastructure, which will one day lead to a prosperous, healthy Africa.

"The Water Well Project" is a creative endeavor, headed by Ms. Sarja, that seeks to raise money for well building efforts through the sale of four books, a colorful children's tale called When Watute Wants Some Water (by Ms. Sarja, and illustrated by her students), How to Cook with a Pencil, a dynamic short story collection that was written and illustrated entirely by kids, Puppets, a picture book, and The Painted Tea Set, a young adult novella. The young authors and artists behind these four fantastic books knew full-well that not a penny of the profits would clink in their piggy banks or bolster their college funds; they are offering their work as a sign of peace and solidarity in the battle against poverty and disease.