Canadian Youth Raise $9000 for Wells in Chad

RAWDON, QC - A group of twenty youth between the ages of 11 and 20 from Renaissance Bible Church raised $9000 over the past year for a new well in Chad, Africa! After having studied the book Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris, the group shares: “We decided to do something to bust the myth that all teenagers are lazy and selfish. The whole idea stemmed from reading about Alex and Brett Harris’s challenge to fellow teenagers of our generation to do hard things for the glory of God. We had just spent the past year raising $100 dollars in order to give a goat to a family that lived in an underprivileged country.”

With the completion of the book study and an ambition to find a goal that would be a challenge, they considered an option to build a well for $15,000 from another organization, but partway through their journey connected with Canadian Global Response to try to fund a well in Chad for $9,000. Youth leaders Jordyn and Darcy Theriault write, “The next time we met all our donations added up to $100, which was equal to what we had gathered over the span of a whole year during our previous project. God was already doing great things! Over the course of the next 18 months, our main fundraising sources were money raised through events hosted by our church, such as: parades, garage sales, cans collected and turned in for deposit refunds, and donations from many people.”

CGR President Abraham Shepherd is excited by the initiative by the youth, which, “came in a time of need for a remote desert area of French- speaking Chad. There is currently one well for over 7,500 people. We want to work with the local community, providing three wells that will each be drilled for around $4,000.” Canadian Global Response has partnered with the youth group, in offsetting the difference for the wells, courses and trainers. CGR will facilitate local training in water and sanitation classes, along with maintenance of the well, which importantly combats poverty and waterborne diseases. Ultimately, this will help increase life expectancy, which according to the WHO is 51.5 years in Chad.

By the time the group had raised roughly $3,000, one of the youth suggested they meet together and start knitting scarves and toques to be sold. The idea quickly expanded, joined by adult friends and family members. From there, a Facebook page developed by the name of OMEE (Our Mission: Extreme Expectations), which creatively documents the milestones, colourful sock puppets, and items already sold to help reach their goal.

The project came to an exciting end July 2014 when a couple from another church dropped by for an unexpected visit with the youth group. The group shares, “They had us on the edge of our seats as they first donated one toonie, then a bag of $200 worth of toonies and finally a cheque for the precise amount of money that separated us from the end, $725! That is how God used us to buy a well for a village in need and we hope that this story will cause people to praise Him and want to live for Him.”

Canadian Global Response thanks the Renaissance youth and their leaders in providing water to a thirsty neglected population of our world. “In an age where many think people think less of the young generation, may they be a challenge to many,” Abraham concludes.