Rotarians Learn Of Severe Problems Of World’s Contaminated Water

Dr Eva Tagoe-Darko, professor of sociology at the University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana, gave a presentation to Newtown Rotarians on Ghanaian culture, lifestyle and health issues related to contaminated water.

Through the joint efforts of the World Help Foundation and the Newtown Rotary, a 20-foot ocean container was shipped to Ghana with 150 water purifying units. Rotarian Harvey Sellner traveled to Ghana to teach the Rotarians of the Tema Rotary Club how to install them in schools, clinics, and other places where they would be most helpful to the people of Ghana.

Safe drinking water is not readily available in much of Ghana and for that reason many mothers are urged not to give their babies any water and to continue to nurse until they are at least two years old.

Harvey Sellner is working with the University of Science and Technology in providing safe drinking water. The next step is to install water towers that will hold large amounts of water, with six to eight faucets to serve an entire village of approximately 5,000 people. When completed, they will serve an elementary school with nearly 1,000 children and a medical clinic treating 4,000 people per year with 900 births.

Mr Sellner is president of the World Help Foundation, a Public 501(c)(3) charity based in Newtown and dedicated to save lives by providing safe water to hospitals, clinics, schools and villages in underdeveloped countries and disaster sites worldwide. More than 25 million people die every year from diseases contracted by contaminated water.

A retired aerospace engineer, Mr Sellner founded World Help in 1991. He designed a water purification system that uses ultra-violent light to take water from contaminated sources and purify it. At times he pipes in water to locations where there is no running water available.

Earlier this year the World Help Foundation and the Rotary joined forces with AmeriCares following the Venezuelan mudslide disaster that took the lives of well over 30,000 men, women and children. AmeriCares, a disaster agency located in New Canaan, brought the food, clothing and medical supplies. World Help brought the water systems. To date, systems have been installed in Haiti, Honduras, Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, Jamaica, Guatemala, Mexico, Armenia, Semolia, and Ghana.

The foundation, which needs the help of everyone, has three programs allowing people to “Make a Difference.” For $500 one can “Adopt a Clinic” to insure that babies and people with weakened immune systems drink bacteria free water.

An “Adopt a School” program for only $1,000 services children in secondary schools; and finally the “Adopt a Village” program, for $1,500, will serve 1,000 people or more year around. It will provide a sterile water tower with four to eight spigots instead of a polluted stream or well.

Anyone interested in helping people of the world obtain safe drinking water is urged to call Harvey Sellner and the World Help Foundation at 270-7853, or visit the website at whfoundation.org.