Diocesan News

Sacred Heart Church Youth Group Raises More Than $7,000 for Wells in Ghana

October 17, 2024
By
Villagers can now easily access water thanks to the new wells built with help from donations. (Photos: Courtesy of Don Magnotta)

GLENDALE — Pete Stamm recently flew 5,000 miles to another continent, not for adventure or leisure, but for a simple drink of water. 

Just before the start of the school year, Stamm, a social studies teacher at Sacred Heart Catholic Academy in Glendale, flew to Ghana and made his way to the village of Konor-Kofe (population: 2,000) to witness a ceremony in which the village elders dedicated a new water well.

At the ceremony, Stamm represented the young people of his parish who raised $3,500 this year to help pay for the digging and installation of the well, as well as others in villages up and down Ghana’s countryside.

Stamm is also the youth minister at Sacred Heart Church. For two consecutive years, members of the St. Gabriel Society, the church’s youth group, organized bake sales and requested donations from parishioners to raise funds. The money was used to assist the non-profit group International Help for Missionaries (IHM) in arranging for the installation of wells in Ghana.

Since the start of last year, Stamm said the members of the St. Gabriel Society, who range in age from 11 to 18, have raised more than $7,000. This past summer, he traveled to Ghana from Aug. 27 to Sept. 2 to get a first-hand look at how the funds were being utilized.

“Seeing the way they were celebrating, the traditional clothing they were wearing, the dancing they were doing, it was incredible,” Stamm said. “It was very humbling for me to see them make such a big deal out of water, something we take for granted. Some of the people were crying.”

Prior to the construction of the well, villagers had to walk more than five miles to a lake, fill jugs with water, and then carry them five miles back to their homes, according to IHM founder Don Magnotta. 

“They had to do this several times a day,” explained Magnotta, who founded the group in 2008. “Just think about how many times you turn on a faucet. The average person in the United States uses 56 gallons of water a day.” 

Stamm said that based on his observations over the summer, the new well will significantly improve the lives of the villagers.

“I presented the children with a soccer ball during the ceremony, and it made me think about how these kids will have more time to do things like play soccer and go to school because they don’t have to spend half their day getting water,” he said. 

Magnotta was inspired to start IHM after attending Mass at St. Margaret Church in Middle Village, in which Father Cletus Forson, who is originally from Ghana, talked about the hardships of the Ghanaian people. 

In one village, residents were so excited about the prospect of a new well that they would visit the site to see the construction progress. (Photo: Courtesy of Don Magnotta)

Moved by Father Forson’s homily, Magnotta decided to pay for the construction of the wells and founded IHM to carry out the work. Since 2008, the organization has been responsible for the construction of nearly 100 wells in Ghana, including 19 this year alone, Magnotta said.

“We are very grateful to our donors, the kids from Sacred Heart, and many others who have contributed to this work,” he said. 

The water from each well is pumped into tanks that can hold between 5,000 and 10,000 liters. Each tank is fitted with multiple faucets to allow more than one person at a time to access the water, Magnotta explained.

“The idea isn’t just to give them the well, it’s to make the whole process of getting water convenient,” he said. 

Before the well was built, villagers had to take a long trek on foot to a lake to get water. (Photo: Courtesy of Don Magnotta)

Victoria Gorski, an eighth grader at Sacred Heart Catholic Academy, said it warms her heart to know that she and other students are helping children in Ghana.

“It helps me feel good to be giving the people in Ghana a life a little more like mine,” Victoria said. “By building the wells, we’re able to help those kids and their friends get to school without them worrying about not having clean drinking water, which I feel no child should have to worry about.” 

Victoria, a member of the St. Gabriel Society, said she has learned a great lesson through this experience. 

“It’s important to live life to the fullest, to be grateful for what we have,” Victoria said. “As humans, we could sometimes be selfish and think that there are so many problems that we deal with, but it’s important to know that there are people in Ghana who don’t even have clean water to drink.”