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Face mask sales will help bring water to African villagers

Langley’s Eleanor Wells is thinks globally by acts locally
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A Langley woman is currently selling face masks and lanyards to raise money for a water project headed up by Pilgrim Relief Society in Africa. (Special to Langley Advance Times)

Eleanor Wells is a woman on a mission.

The Langley woman is raising money, by selling COVID-19 supplies, to help children in Zambia.

Since travelling to Africa in 2016 and again in 2018, the Brookswood resident has been working to raise funds for The Pilgrim Relief Society, a non-profit organization run by her friend Sebastian Tirtirau.

“We have so much and they have so little,” Wells said of her motivation to help people in the region.

In past, she’s helped Pilgrim sponsor animals, and sent money to purchase masks, seeds, and mosquito netting for protection against deadly diseases. In fact, recently she raised $500 that went towards the purchase of 50 locally sourced mosquito-resistant sleeping tents that will help protect about 250 children from malaria.

The society is also currently supporting about 200 orphans in Zambia.

These children are orphans due to the AIDS, which has taken a huge toll on the country, Wells explained. But instead of creating orphanages to house all these children, they’re adopted into the remote African villages that surround Tirtirau’s 49-hectare property in the region.

And through Pilgrim’s fundraising efforts and other donors, he endeavours to supply all their food and educational needs, as well as take care of their medical and physical needs.

Now, Wells want to help Tirtirau and his team bring water to the region.

“Remote African villages often have no water sources,” she said, even though some places in the region have water running just below the surface.

Wells said her current goal is to raise $5,000 to install a solar power system that will bring water to just one of the many villages in the Kalahari Desert. She noted that a few villages in the area already have similar systems, but there’s so many still living without.

“All of this for the purpose of making the villages self supporting,” explained Wells, who hopes to personally return to the region again next year for about a month.

To raise the needed funds for the solar system, Wells is selling disposable face masks (50 for $25) and a lanyard ($2 each) similar to the type used for glasses. Instead of clipping onto glasses, the lanyards are to clip onto face masks.

To help raise funds for the Pilgrim’s water project, people can contact Wells at 604-530-7304.

“All profits from the sale of disposable masks goes directly to the children in Zambia,” Wells concluded.

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23397125_web1_201020-LAT-EleanorMasks--PilgrimRelief_3
A Langley woman is currently selling face masks and lanyards to raise money for a water project headed up by Pilgrim Relief Society in Africa. (Special to Langley Advance Times)


Roxanne Hooper

About the Author: Roxanne Hooper

I began in the news industry at age 15, but honestly, I knew I wanted to be a community journalist even before that.
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