Coffee for water: Fundraiser brews up help for Ugandan school | Entertainment

PLYMOUTH – March 22nd was World Water Day, but the mission behind observance is a year-round focus for members of Conshohocken United Methodist Church and Conshohocken Plymouth Whitemarsh Rotary Club.

The two are partners in a voluntary effort to install a sustainable solar-powered water filtration system at the Karama Education Center in Uganda. The installation – a project by Living Waters for the World – should be completed in autumn. CUMC and CPW Rotary hope their current Coffee That Counts fundraiser with Yield Coffee Roasters will raise the $ 5,000 they need to complete the system.

Different varieties of beans or ground coffee grown in Brazil, Nicaragua, Colombia, Honduras, and Ethiopia are available for $ 20 per 12-ounce bag. Five-bag collections are available for $ 90. All coffee is freshly roasted on April 7th and 8th, shipped on April 9th, and can be purchased on April 10th (9am to 12pm) and April 11th (11am to 2pm) at CUMC, 20 W. Sixth Ave ., Conshohocken, to be picked up o’clock). Buyers can choose to ship five or more bags to them for $ 20.

Living Waters for the World is an international service of the Presbyterian Church. CUMC members initially joined other volunteers to set up a sustainable water treatment system and health education program with the Salvation Army in Holguin, Cuba in 2018. Since then, the local church has been committed to the LWW.

In January 2020, CUMC volunteers traveled to Africa to support the charitable organizations of the Chain Collaborative and Now Africa Initiative with a similar installation at KEC in southwest Uganda near the Republic of the Congo and Rwanda. But the precautions and protocols of COVID-19 have stopped working at the school.

CUMC mission spokesman Pat Patterson’s concern echoes marine conservationist Jacques Cousteau’s warning that “the water cycle and the life cycle are one,” and says that the resumption of the project is urgent. She points to studies showing that around 80 out of 1,000 Ugandan children die before their fifth birthday from diseases caused by contaminated water – polluted rivers and swamps – and poor sanitation. The same data suggests that the proposed filtration system could provide a generation of safe drinking water.

Patterson states that NAI founded KEC in 2016 with support from TCC. NAI is a collective of small coffee farmers who are registered as a social enterprise and are committed to agricultural development and educational improvements in rural Uganda. The US-based TCC defines its mission as “(investing) in the capacity of change leaders in coffee-growing areas and (accompanying) them as they advance the basis for sustainable development in their own communities according to their own visions for change.”

According to Patterson, KEC’s young students come from “a rural community with no public utilities.”

“We will fill this gap by installing solar energy,” she continues. “This new power source will have the dual effect of powering the water treatment system for the first time and powering the KEC to ensure better health and access to more educational opportunities for … 350 school children and the larger community of 1,400 people.”

Patterson describes CUMC’s partnership with LWW as an extension of Conshohocken Church’s ongoing commitment to community service.

“As our Pastor Tim Duchesne said, we’ve seen firsthand the benefits of answering God’s call wherever it leads,” she says. “During the pandemic, our community worked very hard to provide local community help. Our church has built or deepened relationships with other local groups such as the CPW Rotary and Hope Community Church to help as many local people as possible. Many in our church became very practical in the field.

“I think the pandemic really spurred people on to help others. I see a lot more people realizing the importance of both local and global missions … and especially the need for clean, safe water. We often take water, a valuable resource, for granted. In the event of a natural disaster or pandemic, access to clean water can mean the difference between life and death. We all need to take an active role in protecting the world’s water supplies so that we all have the resources we need to weather this recent crisis and thrive when it is over. “

Patterson says all fundraising coffees are “fully traceable, relational, and ethical”. For more information and details on ordering coffee, visit www.conshyunited.com and www.cpwrotary.com. You can text them to KaramaCoffee at 406-302-5086. All purchases are made through the Lafayette Foundation of CPW Rotary.

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