Ottawa runner raising money to provide clean water for Africans.
Passersby in Ottawa during the mornings this week might catch sight of a young mother lugging a large water jug with two kids — one strapped to her back— in tow on the downtown sidewalks.
Sarah Heuser, 34, a special education instructor at Ottawa High School who lives on the city’s South Side, has become her own visual aid as she raises awareness for Africa’s clean water problem during her unique training sessions for the 2017 Bank of America Chicago Marathon, Sunday, Oct 8.
"Most people in the United States have access to clean drinking water and, about two years ago, I became interested in supporting the World Vision organization," Heuser said.
According to its website, World Vision is the largest non-governmental provider of clean water in the world.
"I ran with nearly 2,000 other runners for this charity where we raised nearly $40,000 for various African water projects," she said.
"World Vision is a very hands-on on organization, which gives some 85 percent of its total donations to the actual people and services that they need to have a better life.
So my children and I are doing a mock water fetch of what the kids and woman in Africa experience on a daily basis in order to raise awareness and money for the cause."
"I’m really looking forward to the trip to meet some of the children and people that World Vision is helping," Heuser said.
"Sarah is amazing," McIntyre said.

Ottawa runner raising money to provide clean water for Africans.
Passersby in Ottawa during the mornings this week might catch sight of a young mother lugging a large water jug with two kids — one strapped to her back— in tow on the downtown sidewalks.
Sarah Heuser, 34, a special education instructor at Ottawa High School who lives on the city’s South Side, has become her own visual aid as she raises awareness for Africa’s clean water problem during her unique training sessions for the 2017 Bank of America Chicago Marathon, Sunday, Oct 8.
"Most people in the United States have access to clean drinking water and, about two years ago, I became interested in supporting the World Vision organization," Heuser said.
According to its website, World Vision is the largest non-governmental provider of clean water in the world.
"I ran with nearly 2,000 other runners for this charity where we raised nearly $40,000 for various African water projects," she said.
"World Vision is a very hands-on on organization, which gives some 85 percent of its total donations to the actual people and services that they need to have a better life.
So my children and I are doing a mock water fetch of what the kids and woman in Africa experience on a daily basis in order to raise awareness and money for the cause."
"I’m really looking forward to the trip to meet some of the children and people that World Vision is helping," Heuser said.
"Sarah is amazing," McIntyre said.

TDot Performance Teams up with Charity Water.
In an effort to bring clean drinking water to global communities, TDot Performance has teamed up with charity:water.
Toronto, Ontario – TDot Performance, one of Canada’s top auto-parts retailers, has decided to team up with charity: water in an effort to bring clean drinking water to global communities where it’s sorely lacking.
People who live in places like Sub-Saharan Africa desperately need funds to set up drilled wells, spring protections, and BioSand filters.
“Our goal is to raise $10,000 USD.
That would be enough to give hundreds of people access to clean water,” says Charith Perera, a co-founder and CEO of TDotPerformance.ca, “As Canadians, we are fortunate enough to have access to clean water.
When I thought about how others globally do not share this same blessing, I started to look for a way to raise money for this initiative and have Tdotperformance.ca lead the way,” says Perera, “And we’re very invested in reaching our goal.” As an added incentive for making a donation, TDot Performance is offering to match a donor’s donation amount in the form of a TDot Performance gift card ($10 for $10 donations, $15 for $15 donations, and $25 for $25 donations).
The donation will run through 9/30/2017.
Every dollar helps.” About TDot Performance TDot Performance is the largest source of car performance parts in Canada.
Because the company is based in Canada, customers are never charged with customs, duties or brokerage fees.

Good news to ensure good water.
The beautiful black water of the North Edisto River puts Orangeburg in the enviable position of a having a continuous and quality source of drinking water.
It is a resource generally taken for granted — except for thousands of people not served by a water system.
The Water Well Trust, the only national nonprofit helping low-income Americans get access to a clean, safe water supply, has announced that it is expanding from 13 to 16 the number of South Carolina counties eligible to receive assistance for drilling a new water well or rehabilitating an existing well.
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded a $140,000 matching grant to the Water Well Trust for a project to increase potable water availability to households in 13 rural South Carolina counties, including Orangeburg.
The USDA grant monies will provide long-term, low-interest loans to applicants seeking new or improved water wells in the 16-county area.
To be eligible to receive a WWT loan, an applicant must be the owner and occupant of the home as their primary residence.
The 2016 Non-Metropolitan median household income for South Carolina is $44,200.
The income criteria apply to both the applicant and all other occupants of the home.
Ask those people whether water is to be taken for granted.

Good news to ensure good water.
The beautiful black water of the North Edisto River puts Orangeburg in the enviable position of a having a continuous and quality source of drinking water.
It is a resource generally taken for granted — except for thousands of people not served by a water system.
The Water Well Trust, the only national nonprofit helping low-income Americans get access to a clean, safe water supply, has announced that it is expanding from 13 to 16 the number of South Carolina counties eligible to receive assistance for drilling a new water well or rehabilitating an existing well.
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded a $140,000 matching grant to the Water Well Trust for a project to increase potable water availability to households in 13 rural South Carolina counties, including Orangeburg.
The USDA grant monies will provide long-term, low-interest loans to applicants seeking new or improved water wells in the 16-county area.
To be eligible to receive a WWT loan, an applicant must be the owner and occupant of the home as their primary residence.
The 2016 Non-Metropolitan median household income for South Carolina is $44,200.
The income criteria apply to both the applicant and all other occupants of the home.
Ask those people whether water is to be taken for granted.

W.H.O report: Clean water fight still murky.
MORE than two billion people lack access to clean and safe drinking water, according to a new report released by the World Health Organisation.
Although significant progress to ensure access to drinking water has been achieved, there is still a long way to go to ensure its quality — deemed free from pollutants and safe for drinking.
While many countries like India have made it a top priority, many others haven’t been able to emphasise the issue yet,” said United Nations Children’s Fund water, sanitation and hygiene chief Sanjay Wijesekera.
Some 159 million people, the report said, rely on untreated water from lakes and streams.
This puts lives, especially of young children, at great risk.
“Every day, 800 children under the age of 5 die from waterborne diseases like diarrhoea.
While the global drop in open defaecation from 20 to 12 per cent between 2000 and 2015 is a welcome fact, the rate of decline, at just 0.7 per cent every year, puts pressure on governments to do more.
Still, some countries like Ethiopia have combatted the issue of open defaecation successfully.
Similarly, Panama’s capital city has achieved universal access to clean drinking water, but other sub-regions in the country remain marginalised.

Two Billion People Don’t Have Access to Clean Water.
United Nations — More than two billion people lack access to clean and safe drinking water, according to a new report released by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Although significant progress to ensure access to drinking water has been achieved, there is still a long way to go to ensure its quality — deemed free from pollutants and safe for drinking.
While many countries like India have made it a top priority, many others haven’t been able to emphasise the issue yet," Sanjay Wijesekera, Chief of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene at UNICEF, told IPS.
This puts lives, especially of young children, at great risk.
Wijesekera added.
A lack of access to clean drinking water is also bad news for hygiene and sanitary levels.
While the global drop in open defecation from 20 to 12 percent between 2000 and 2015 is a welcome fact, the rate of decline, at just .7 percent every year, puts pressure on governments to do more.
Still, some countries like Ethiopia have combatted the issue of open defecation successfully.
Critical building blocks like stronger policies at the government levels and dutiful allocation of funds can go a long way," Wijesekera said.

2.1 billion people lack safe drinking water at home 4.5 billion people do not have safely managed sanitation 2.3 billion people do not have basic sanitation services 844 million people do not have even a basic drinking water service Too many people still lack access to safe drinking water and safely managed sanitation, particularly in rural areas.
Significant inequalities persist The report has found huge gaps in services between urban and rural areas with two out of three people with safely managed drinking water and three out of five people with safely managed sanitation services living in urban areas.
The situation is in sharp contrast to what the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim at achieving: "reducing inequalities between and within countries", ending open defecation and ensuring universal access to basic services by 2030.
There are not only significant inequalities in basic water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services and open defecation between regions and between countries within each region, but also within individual countries between urban and rural areas.
However, there is a 40 percentage point gap between urban and rural areas within the country.
In fact, poor sanitation and contaminated water are linked to transmission of diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis A, and typhoid, which kill 361,000 children under five every year.
Touching upon the progress of Swachh Bharat (Clean India) Mission, the report observed that this pan-India programme “recognizes the need to go beyond reporting infrastructure coverage, and is conducting population-based surveys to determine household use of sanitation facilities”.
While more than 205,000 villages, 149 districts and five States had reported themselves to be open-defecation free (ODF) as of June 2017, questions have been raised on the way this programme has been implemented.
While 76 per cent of people in western Asia and northern Africa have the access to water and soap, the percentage dips to 15 in sub-Saharan Africa.
Key findings in figures 2.1 billion people lack safe drinking water at home 4.5 billion people do not have safely managed sanitation 2.3 billion people do not have basic sanitation services 844 million people do not have even a basic drinking water service 263 million people spend over 30 minutes per trip collecting water from sources outside the home 159 million people still drink untreated water from surface water sources like streams or lakes 90 countries have made very little progress towards basic sanitation and they are unlikely to achive universal coverage by 2030 892 million people—mostly in rural areas—defecate in the open "Safe water, sanitation and hygiene at home should not be a privilege of only those who are rich or live in urban centres," says Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.

2.1 billion people lack safe drinking water at home 4.5 billion people do not have safely managed sanitation 2.3 billion people do not have basic sanitation services 844 million people do not have even a basic drinking water service Too many people still lack access to safe drinking water and safely managed sanitation, particularly in rural areas.
Significant inequalities persist The report has found huge gaps in services between urban and rural areas with two out of three people with safely managed drinking water and three out of five people with safely managed sanitation services living in urban areas.
The situation is in sharp contrast to what the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim at achieving: "reducing inequalities between and within countries", ending open defecation and ensuring universal access to basic services by 2030.
There are not only significant inequalities in basic water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services and open defecation between regions and between countries within each region, but also within individual countries between urban and rural areas.
However, there is a 40 percentage point gap between urban and rural areas within the country.
In fact, poor sanitation and contaminated water are linked to transmission of diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis A, and typhoid, which kill 361,000 children under five every year.
Touching upon the progress of Swachh Bharat (Clean India) Mission, the report observed that this pan-India programme “recognizes the need to go beyond reporting infrastructure coverage, and is conducting population-based surveys to determine household use of sanitation facilities”.
While more than 205,000 villages, 149 districts and five States had reported themselves to be open-defecation free (ODF) as of June 2017, questions have been raised on the way this programme has been implemented.
While 76 per cent of people in western Asia and northern Africa have the access to water and soap, the percentage dips to 15 in sub-Saharan Africa.
Key findings in figures 2.1 billion people lack safe drinking water at home 4.5 billion people do not have safely managed sanitation 2.3 billion people do not have basic sanitation services 844 million people do not have even a basic drinking water service 263 million people spend over 30 minutes per trip collecting water from sources outside the home 159 million people still drink untreated water from surface water sources like streams or lakes 90 countries have made very little progress towards basic sanitation and they are unlikely to achive universal coverage by 2030 892 million people—mostly in rural areas—defecate in the open "Safe water, sanitation and hygiene at home should not be a privilege of only those who are rich or live in urban centres," says Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.

The team of volunteers includes Kim Vincent and Will Prosper in Montréal, and Sophia LaaBabsi, Ibrahima Dabo, a member of the Barry family in Québec City, and Souleymane Bah, president of l’Association des Guinéens du Québec all based in Quebec City with personal ties to the victims and their families.
They are currently crowdfunding to raise enough funds to build two wells, one in Mamadou Barry’s village and another in the village of Ibrahima Barry, who also died in the Quebec mosque attack.
The team has crowdfunded over 16K of the 25K they hope to raise for the project which will need to begin before the end of the year inshallah (God willing).
Muslim Link interviewed tteam member Kim Vincent about the project.
She, and other members of the team, will be using their own funds to travel.
The attack on the Islamic Center that killed six men was a shocking violation for our society as a whole and a very painful one for me.
What has it been like working with such a diverse team based in Montreal, Quebec City, and Guinea?
Souleymane Bah was able to travel to Conakry over Ramadan; he met with contractors who will also be involved in the realization of the wells.
It was always our goal to be funded by the people of Quebec for the sake of the children of the victims.
Will Prosper spoke about the project at the Broadbent Institute’s Progress Summit in April and we garnered some support from English Canada as well as a result but we can be proud that the vast majority of support has come from average Quebecers who are still stunned by the tragic event.