Newtown Youth Plan Club To Assist World Help Foundation

World Help Foundation, a public charity that provides safe drinking water to underdeveloped countries and sites of disaster worldwide, may get help in raising awareness of its cause from Newtown youth this fall. Mary Kate Conlon, Nikia McFadden, and Tamara Kemsley, juniors at Newtown High School, plan to organize a World Help Foundation Youth Committee to increase understanding of the problem of unsanitary water in developing countries, and to raise funds to offset the cost of providing water purification systems in those countries.

“I was thinking about community service,” said Mary Kate. “Mrs Sellner was my fourth grade teacher at Middle Gate and I remembered that her husband had visited our class.”

Newtown resident and retired engineer Harvey Sellner was the originator of a water purification technique using ultraviolet light. He started World Help Foundation 14 years ago to make this technique accessible to underdeveloped countries and areas of natural disasters.

 “I went on the website and felt that it was interesting and very moving and should be looked at by our community and definitely by our youth,” said Mary Kate. “Clean water is so basic for everyone. It strikes me as incredible that there are people in the world who don’t have clean water. It’s a basic right.”

Mary Kate, a member of the Newtown High School swim team, took part in an open swim in Long Island Sound this June, a 1.4-mile swim that raised nearly $700 for the World Help Foundation. She felt that with the help of other young people, even more of an impact could be made, and recruited her friends to help organize the committee.

Nikia and Tamara, who share Mary Kate’s concerns, hope that their enthusiasm will encourage other teenagers to join them. A screening of a video about the World Help Foundation and its impact on the world is planned in the near future. The new club will also take part in a “clean water toast” this fall to raise needed funds for water purification systems in the country of Ghana, according to the girls.

Teenagers interested in joining the World Help Foundation Youth Committee should watch for a sign up once school begins.