Where There’s A Well, There’s a Way
Hanna Rioseco, left, and Rebecca Aguilera are excited about the Feb. 3 INK event to raise money to build a well in Zimbabwe.
For her senior project, Bonita High School student Rebecca Aguilera wants to help a small African village in Zimbabwe construct a well that will furnish fresh water to its local inhabitants.
“It will serve hundreds,” said Aguilera, who will leave for Zimbabwe on June 16 with other members of Christ’s Church of the Valley (CCV) to begin construction of the well. “With water comes food, with food comes education, with education comes change.
“As we speak, villagers are dying because of their lack of access to fresh water. It’s a tragedy.”
It’s more of a tragedy because Rebecca believes Americans can do more to reverse a correctable situation. “Teenagers in America spend $49 billion a year on gifts at Christmas time,” she said. “It costs only $10,000 to build a well.”
To help raise the $10,000, Rebecca and members of the Shift College, CCV’s college ministry, are hosting a one-night celebration called INK this Thursday at 7 p.m. at CCV. The unique event will feature a water bar with different H20 samplings, poetry readings, live art demonstrations and water rappers. Bonita’s on-campus club, Creativity for a Cause, will paint shoes, play music and lend their artistic talents to the event as well.
Aguilera, who played librero on Bonita’s top-ranked volleyball team and is on her way next fall to Point Loma Nazarene College in San Diego to study nursing, is heartened at how Bonita and La Verne have embraced her project.
“We’re one school, one town changing hundreds of lives around the world,” Aguilera said. “We’re now a part of something bigger than ourselves.”
For her project, Aguilera has interviewed missionaries who have returned from Zimbabwe, as well as water experts who have helped her understand how much impact digging one well can have on the quality of life in rural Africa.
“Zimbabwe is at least 100 years behind us,” Aguilera noted. “They don’t have working toilets or showers. It makes you appreciate even more what we have here in America.”
Her project has also made her question the divide between rich, developed nations like the United States and undeveloped countries like Zimbabwe. By getting people to attend INK tomorrow night, especially students, she hopes she can begin filling that void of understanding.
“We’re not asking just for donations,” said Aguilera, who has been supported by one of her best friends, Hanna Rioseco in this endeavor. “We’re really asking people to be more aware of the situation in Zimbabwe.
“Even one penny means a lot when you consider that the people there on average live off a $1.25 a day. By having water, they can grow food and look for a job.”
Aguilera hopes to improve the world one hole at a time, knowing that wherever there’s a well, there’s a way.
Church of the Valley is located at 1404 W. Covina Blvd. in San Dimas. INK begins at 7 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 3.
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