MPONELA, Malawi (KDVR) — A roll of duct tape is all it took for Jordan Banda to repair engine problems his four-wheel-drive faced days ago on a dusty road in east Africa.
A program director for Marion Medical Mission who logs thousands of miles a year traveling between remote villages, Banda is used to the challenges of driving in Malawi.
“I’ve blown a clutch in a truck in the middle of the night and had to have them come rescue me. Been stuck in the sand up to the hubcaps. I’ve had a bridge collapse under me. I’ve had at least seven flat tires. Crossed river bridges using my snorkel. Just one adventure after another,” said Joel McGree, a longtime volunteer with the nonprofit.
Then there’s the time Doug Kee’s vehicle was shot at, a rare occurrence in rural areas of Malawi where there’s very little crime.
The challenges of navigating the roads in one of the poorest, least developed countries on earth are all in a day’s work for the 19 Marion Medical Mission volunteers on the ground right now Malawi, Zambia and Tanzania. Many of the volunteers are from Colorado. All of them are taking part in the final phase of installing some of the more than 4,000 safe, sustainable drinking water wells the non-profit plans to install in the most remote African villages this year alone.
Over the past few decades, Marion Medical Mission has installed more than 58,000 wells in Africa, with no end in sight, because the need is so great.
“Many times, people have said, ‘Why can’t the Africans themselves pull themselves up by their bootstraps?’ They don’t have boots!” Tom Logan, Marion Medical Mission founder and president, told volunteers at a training session last week.
Logan has been doing this work since the mid-1980s, and says the need is so great, somebody’s had to step in.
“People from Ethiopia and Kenya and Uganda have contacted (us) and said, ‘Hey, you know, we need water, come up and build some wells up here,'” Logan told FOX31.
Among those helping, Marion Medical Mission field officer Francis Kaponda, who helps oversee the construction of new wells. And program coordinator Jordan Banda, who took FOX31 to a village where a well was being dug. Before the project, villagers were getting sick from the drinking water.
“As we are drinking bad water, we feel pain in our stomach,” one villager told FOX31.
“It wasn’t like I came over here and showed them how to build a well. We learned how to build a well together,” Logan said.
The charity has helped more than five million Africans access clean water over the past few decades, overcoming immeasurable challenges to get the job done.
Even if it means carrying an extra roll of duct tape, in case engine repairs are needed.
To learn more about Marion Medical Mission, visit their webpage.
Anthony Sutton is a business strategist and writer with a passion for management, leadership, and entrepreneurship. With years of experience in the corporate world, he shares insights on business growth, strategy, and innovation through management-opleiding.org.
