Posted 12:54 am Saturday, October 29, 2011
Reverend Speaks About Nonprofit Work On Tanzania Water Wells
By REBECCA HOEFFNER
Staff Writer
The Rev. John Naumann, spoke at All Saints Episcopal School and Christ Episcopal Church Thursday and with the Tyler Rotary Club on Friday about his work as founder and director of the Amani Development Organization operating in rural Tanzania.
Amani is a nonprofit that drills water wells, provides famine relief, cares for orphans, builds schools, and provides educational scholarships and vocational training.
“Fr. John had seen how things we take for granted, like access to clean water, can change lives over there,” said president of The Amani for Africa USA Foundation, Ralph Spence. “Corruption, poverty, AIDS, malnutrition and illiteracy make the population in many areas weak.”
Naumann graduated from St. Francis Theological Seminary in 1966 and served in a series of churches in Australia. He arrived at St. Stephen’s Parish in Billings, Montana in 1989.
Staff Writer
The Rev. John Naumann, spoke at All Saints Episcopal School and Christ Episcopal Church Thursday and with the Tyler Rotary Club on Friday about his work as founder and director of the Amani Development Organization operating in rural Tanzania.
Amani is a nonprofit that drills water wells, provides famine relief, cares for orphans, builds schools, and provides educational scholarships and vocational training.
“Fr. John had seen how things we take for granted, like access to clean water, can change lives over there,” said president of The Amani for Africa USA Foundation, Ralph Spence. “Corruption, poverty, AIDS, malnutrition and illiteracy make the population in many areas weak.”
Naumann graduated from St. Francis Theological Seminary in 1966 and served in a series of churches in Australia. He arrived at St. Stephen’s Parish in Billings, Montana in 1989.
In 1992, St. Stephen’s invited the Rev. Ainea Kusenhia and his wife, Mary, to come visit from central Tanzania. Both were schoolteachers doing postgraduate work at Trinity Episcopal School of Ministry at Ambridge, Pa.
St. Stephen’s began helping sponsor students who couldn’t afford an education.
In 2000, Naumann spent much of his four-month sabbatical in Tanzania. It was then he realized the people desperately needed water.
“I was praying, and the Lord said, ‘I am planting a tree, and it will bear fruit,’” he said. “The people have accepted that as a promise, that God is blessing their lives.”
St. Stephen’s began helping sponsor students who couldn’t afford an education.
In 2000, Naumann spent much of his four-month sabbatical in Tanzania. It was then he realized the people desperately needed water.
“I was praying, and the Lord said, ‘I am planting a tree, and it will bear fruit,’” he said. “The people have accepted that as a promise, that God is blessing their lives.”
The cost to survey, drill and properly equip each well is $30,000.
Naumann calls it “a labor of love.”
“The benefits of uncontaminated water are far-reaching,” Naumann said. “Life is totally transformed and the cycle of cholera is broken because the people have access to clean water. The incidence of typhoid is greatly reduced and mothers no longer have to spend long hours walking to a distant source of water. Eye infections in children practically disappear because sufficient water exists for proper hygiene.”
Naumann calls it “a labor of love.”
“The benefits of uncontaminated water are far-reaching,” Naumann said. “Life is totally transformed and the cycle of cholera is broken because the people have access to clean water. The incidence of typhoid is greatly reduced and mothers no longer have to spend long hours walking to a distant source of water. Eye infections in children practically disappear because sufficient water exists for proper hygiene.”
The Amani board in Africa and the foundations in the US and Australia are all volunteers.
Naumann lives off his pension without any salary. Only 2 percent of the funds goes to administration; the rest goes to goes to native employees of Amani or for assistance.
Amani was recently presented with the Freedom Torch Award by the Tanzanian government in recognition of its work. More than 30,000 people from eight villages rely on clean water provided by Amani, and there are more than 300 children attending Amani schools or receiving sponsorships.
“They say ‘Fr. Naumann walks with the people’ because he goes out to learn what they need and then works together to find a solution,” Spence said.
For more information on the organization, visit www.amanidevelopment.org.
Naumann lives off his pension without any salary. Only 2 percent of the funds goes to administration; the rest goes to goes to native employees of Amani or for assistance.
Amani was recently presented with the Freedom Torch Award by the Tanzanian government in recognition of its work. More than 30,000 people from eight villages rely on clean water provided by Amani, and there are more than 300 children attending Amani schools or receiving sponsorships.
“They say ‘Fr. Naumann walks with the people’ because he goes out to learn what they need and then works together to find a solution,” Spence said.
For more information on the organization, visit www.amanidevelopment.org.
