If you lived in rural north central Sri Lanka, the likelihood that you would get kidney disease or liver cancer is -- astonishingly! -- well over 60%.
Why is that? Because the only water you have access to is contaminated with pesticides. And, as if that is not risky enough, the likelihood that you might get mauled or killed by an elephant as you walked the more than five miles to get the contaminated water is not low either.
When the Colleyville Rotary Club's Foundation Chair, Keith Kithsiri, visited his boyhood home in northern Sri Lanka in 2022, he paid a visit to the Colombo Rotary Club where he met with the District Leadership. Keith's first question in any situation is always, "What are your needs? How can I serve you?" Their answer? Clean water. When Keith returned to the US, he rolled up his sleeves and set about pulling together resources to solve the problem. He collected data to determine the greatest area of need, designed five reverse osmosis wells to American standards with sustainability in mind, wrote a Rotary Foundation Global Grant, and built partnerships with other Rotary Clubs in the US and Sri Lanka to fund and manage the project.
Five months after funding was in place -- and thousands of emails and middle of the night phone calls made -- clean water was flowing, and the villagers got their first taste of precious, clean water! Today the wells provide access to clean water to over 10,000 Sri Lankans. In November of 2023, Keith returned to Sri Lanka along with District Governor Nominee Jon Bullock to inspect and officially open the wells to much fanfare, celebration and gratitude of the Sri Lankans.
Colleyville Rotary club is a small club in a small town, but we don't let size define us. What does define us is Rotary's "Service Above Self" mindset. We see what needs to be done, whether it is half a world away or in our own backyard, and we roll up our sleeves and do it.
