Residents Join WHF To Aid

Indonesia Tsunami Victims

Ten villages in Indonesia still suffering from the effects of the December 2004 tsunami will benefit from the generosity of the people of Newtown and World Help Foundation (WHF). In late July a 40-foot steamer container was completely loaded with ten water purifying systems and subsequently trucked to the port of New York to be loaded on a ship sailing August 2 destined to reach Indonesia by September 15. Donations to pay for those water purifying systems and supplemental equipment were received from Newtown residents of all ages and have been put into use by WHF.

Indonesia was by far the hardest hit by the Tsunami with loss of life being estimated at 250,000 people and much of the infrastructure of the northern part of the island of Sumatra still without safe local water. Each of the ten systems will be set up in a village and will serve more than 1,000 people.

When the disaster was discussed during classes at Reed Intermediate School in Newtown, a fifth grade student suggested a townwide fundraiser to help the many people suffering from the devastating effects. Rotary Club of Newtown member Harvey Sellner, the founder of WHP, gave a talk about the world’s problem on the lack of safe drinking water resulting in sickness and shortened life of over 2.4 billion people of the world.

He explained how WHF was endeavoring to give people the means to have safe drinking water available in their area. Safe water was a big problem in Indonesia and it was decided to work with WHF to provide systems to clean local contaminated water.

The class immediately agreed to promote such a program and designed a poster to promote a townwide fundraiser. This was immediately adopted by the students of all Newtown schools and the town. In a short time, thousands of dollars were raised to provide ten separate systems in the disaster area of Banda Aceh.

Rotary Club of Newtown contacted the Rotary Club of Banda Aceh, who agreed to take on the project. The overseas club agreed to decide which ten villages should receive the purifying systems, and also agreed to be the recipient of the equipment once it was shipped from New York City.

Shipment was unfortunately delayed as the ports in Indonesia had received so much material that they could not receive any additional supplies until all the material already received was organized and moved from the dock area.

During this time, Mariano Brothers in Bethel stored the equipment in its warehouse and once the Indonesian ports were cleared, WHF’s efforts began again. The container is scheduled to reach Indonesia by mid-September and within a short time, families will have safe drinking water available in their own village.

World Help Foundation and Newtown Rotary are now finalizing the delivery of equipment for three large village systems in Ghana. Harvey Sellner is currently in Ghana, discussing plans with the Rotary Club of Acca, which will be organizing and setting up the systems that will enable thousands of people to have for the first time what so many people take for granted: an uncontaminated glass of water to drink.

World Help Foundation was started by Mr Sellner ten years ago. He realized the plight of so many people in the world and since then has provided hundreds of systems to over ten countries in the World.

WHF is a tax-exempt cooperation and any contribution made is deductible from one’s IRS income tax. For more information visit WHF’s website at WorldHelpFound.org. Contributions may be sent to World Help Organization, PO Box 500, Newtown CT 06470.