Crestview dentist and runner support African water projects

The people of Mpolonjeni, Swaziland, have recently seen improvement in their health, hygiene, crop yield and overall way of life, and they have the patients and staff of a Crestview dentist to thank. Persistent drought in eastern Swaziland, including Lubombo province in which Mpolonjeni is located, had decimated the community’s water supply.

For several years, the practice of Dr. Jennifer Wayer has supported World Vision, a Christian non-governmental humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide. In 2009, Wayer and her team raised funding for a children’s care center in Swaziland.

Wayer’s most recent project has been supporting construction of a water and sanitation system for Mpolonjeni, for which the dentist and her patients have raised more than $30,000. With the initial phase recently completed, including a borehole well and piping, fresh water is flowing into the town for the first time in its history.

Modern sanitation facilities assure the water supply isn’t tainted by human waste. Previously scarce water resources are no longer shared with, and contaminated by, livestock. Once prevalent incidences of diarrhea and other illnesses from drinking and cooking with contaminated water are rapidly declining in the community.

One of Wayer’s chief sources of funding for the project is the generosity of her uninsured patients. When low-income patients without insurance come to her Fourth Avenue office, they arrange a minimal fee for her services in advance of treatment.

Wayer said her goal is not to offer “free services,” but to make services available at significantly reduced costs. Proceeds go to World Vision. Wayer partnered with Emmanuel Baptist Church, which holds the funds the program collects in a special savings account.

“I don’t think you can get any more basic than taking care of things for other people that we take for granted,” Wayer said.

Wayer’s efforts struck a responsive chord with another fervent supporter of World Vision’s fresh water projects. On Jan. 3, New Port Richey resident Athena Papadopoulos set out from Jacksonville Beach on a cross-country run to raise awareness of the need for fresh drinking water in underdeveloped places.

“I heard of people running or biking across America for causes and I thought, why not for this?” said Papadopoulos, a former school track star. “I would hope by raising awareness (of the lack of fresh water in the third world) it would spark something in people and they’d want to donate something toward it.”

On Jan. 26, Papadopoulos, following the transcontinental running and cycling “Southern Tier” route, arrived in Crestview, just dodging a soaking thunderstorm that hit the region.

The first thing she did after her local hosts, the Rev. Randall and Susan Jenkins of First Baptist Church, picked her up was head to Wayer’s office to meet a fellow World Vision supporter. The two excitedly discussed their visits to Africa — Papadopoulos spent a year in Kenya — and the need both immediately perceived for improving water resources.

“You are literally running with it!” Wayer exclaimed in delight.

The next morning Papadopoulos was once more on U.S. Highway 90, running west while pushing her supplies in a three-wheeled stroller. (“Police freak out when they see me pushing the stroller and they say, ‘Where’s the baby?’”) A gallon jug of water hangs from the stroller’s handle.

Thanks to Papadopoulos, Wayer and their supporters, a bottle of water like that is no longer a scarce commodity in parts of Africa.