Chris Krueger introduced her friend.  She and Buey attended the same church when she still lived in Omaha.  The first time Mesa West heard from Buey was February 1, 2018 when Chris was President Elect.  She had a dream of partnering with Aqua Africa in a global grant to do a significant water project in South Sudan.  

 

For the benefit of some of the members and guests who had not heard Buey's story before, Buey shared stories about his life as a boy in Sudan.  He remembered not seeing his mother in the morning and sometimes well into the afternoon.  Every day she had to walk 14 miles to the Nile and fill two containers with water to bring back for her family.  When filled, each container weighed forty pounds.  After she returned, the water had to be boiled before it could be used. 

 

Buey remembered someone coming to their village to drill a water well.  That person handed out bottles of water that were clear.  Until then, Buey thought the only clear water was captured rain water.  He thought water was brown.  After the well was finished and he mother could get water close to home, their life changed dramatically overnight.  He remembered realizing his stomach pain was gone.  Until they had clean water, he thought the way he had felt before was normal.

 

As a young boy, Buey and his brother were drafted into fighting in local conflicts.  The older brother lost his life.  Buey's father was from Sudan, but his mother was from Ethiopia.  The family fled to Ethiopia.  Buey's father became very vocal about the need to end children fighting in wars.  He was imprisoned for a while as a political prisoner.  Eventually, they had the opportunity to go either to Canada or Minnesota as refugees.  His father chose Minnesota thinking it would be warmer.  A later move - further south to Omaha - where they hoped for warmer weather.  They were welcomed to Omaha in October by a headline making severe winter storm.

 

Buey graduated from the University of Nebraska-Omaha.  He majored in economics and political science.  He and his childhood friend Jacob Kohl founded Aqua Africa in 2007.  They had a dream of helping their homeland and transforming the way aid is delivered to developing countries.

 

Buey said he has now been in America 21 years and highly recommends it.  He became a US citizen three years ago.  He and his wife are expecting their first child.

 

Earlier this spring, the Global Grant was finally approved by The Rotary Foundation.  work on the project will start in the fall.  Buey wanted to be honest with the club.  He said there will be challenges.  The political climate is more stable than in the past, but still fragile.  There are supply line challenges.  The location of the project in Maiwut is not accessible during the rainy season.  Roads are not paved.  

 

Aqua Africa's program director travelled to the community to get their engagement.  Aqua Africa requires the benefitting community contribute 15% of the value of the project.  Their contribution does not have to be monetary.  It can be labor and/or materials.  They have pulled out of projects where that commitment was not forthcoming.  Buey explained that community investment is necessary to ensure that a project can achieve sustainability.

 

Because a water project changes the lives of women so dramatically, they work to engage the women and mobilize them into being involved in the  management of the new resource.  The incoming commissioner was Buey's platoon leader when Buey served in the army.  The platoon leader was about 14 years old at the time.  Aqua Africa tries to meet with leaders at all levels of governance, turning over all data to help them better understand.  

 

Intitially on this new project, in May-July, they will be working to identify drillers - likely from Ethiopia.  The will be drilling a larger diameter well to get higher capacity.  They anticipate actually drilling in November-December, 2021.   They hope to have progressed to actual construction from February-April.  Buey acknowledged it will be a challenge to source needed materials.  He promised to keep the club updated.  He anticipates the total cost of the project to be $310,000.  The Rotary funds total $203,000.  Their administrative cost of $1107,000 will be covered by other fundraising endeavors.  They are not going to wait until they are fully funded to begin.  He said it is actually easier to raise money for a project in progress than it is for a project at the conceptual stage.

 

One of the unusual elements of what Aqua Africa does is help the benefitting community create a mini democracy to manage the new resource.  They have done that successfully several times on smaller projects and know it works to ensure stability and sustainability.  Aqua Africa phases their involvement out slowly during the early years their new projects are in operation.