Hydrophiles

Hydrophiles supports the Corvallis-Gondar Sister City Association

The Corvallis-Gondar Sister City Association (C-GSCA) is a local organization that works with people in Gondar, Ethiopia, to promote safe/sustainable drinking water through education and infrastructure. Their efforts span a wide range of water-related activities, from water engineering to education. Consequently, their projects compliment the diversity of interests within Hydrophiles and we have formed an ongoing partnership to assist C-GSCA with their educational and humanitarian goals. C-GSCA's focus includes:

• Access to clean drinking water through drilling of wells.
• Restoration and rehabilitation of Gondar’s watershed area with extensive tree planting.
• Construction of public toilets and showers for improved sanitation and hygiene.
• Development of a culture of readers with librarian training and furnishing a diverse set of books for the library at our sister school, Tsadiku Yohannes Elementary School.
• Improvement in children’s learning through usage of classroom materials and professional development of teachers.
• Computer literacy for faculty and students with the creation of a computer classroom, installation of computers, and internet access.

Upcoming events include: 

Walk for Water (July 12, 2014): The Walk for Water is one of C-GSCA’s annual fundraising events. The 5k walks represents the distance that men, women, and children have to walk every day to gain access to clean water. Hydrophiles will be running ‘water experiments’ geared toward kids to demonstrate fluid concepts. Contact Laura Hempel if you’re interested in participating!

Some examples of Hydrophiles’ past involvement include: 

Volunteering at C-GSCA's annual Ethiopian fund-raising Dinner (Feb 26, 2014): About 8 Hydrophiles volunteers helped serve food at the Ethiopian Cultural Dinner. The Ethiopian culture is shared with 200+ guests who are welcomed with an Ethiopian shoulder-to-shoulder handshake and invited to enjoy the food, costumes, pictures, and information about the lives of Ethiopians both in their country and within the United States of America. Funds from these dinners and auctions support educational projects between our sister city, Gondar and Corvallis that include: Teacher exchanges from Gondar to Corvallis and support of activities in Gondar when delegations from Corvallis conduct demonstrations in Gondar schools; Teacher training conducted by the Gondar College of Teacher Education with guidance and support from C-GSCA Education Work Group; Library and computer training emphasizing skills and curricular improvements.

Developing an educational booklet about water and sanitation (ongoing): Hydrophiles has partnered with C-GSCA to develop an educational booklet with easy-to-understand illustrations on topics including: basic sanitation, washing hands after going to the bathroom, disease prevention, and germs and bacteria. The booklet would be geared toward children and would eventually be translated into Ethiopian.