Story by EmmaLee Italia, Correspondent

The Twin Parish Ministry of St. Mary Parish, Barnegat, chose a unique way to have its parish and school children participate in Lenten sacrifice: drinking only water one day a week.

Called “Water Only Wednesdays,” the Lenten fundraiser and service project was a joint effort between the parish’s religious education students and All Saints Regional School, Manahawkin – and it took kids back to the basics.

The project aimed to raise funds for water storage tanks for its twin parish – Holy Trinity Parish Ziroobwe, Diocese of Kasana-Luweero, Uganda, which St. Mary Parish twinned in 2012. Each Wednesday during Lent, participants set aside money they would normally spend on soft drinks, fruit juices and other packaged drinks, and instead drank only water.

“Water Only Wednesdays will add a new dimension to Lenten sacrifice,” the ministry announced in the St. Mary Parish bulletin. “Instead of simply ‘giving something up’ for Lent, those participating in this small sacrifice shall also be acting in solidarity with the poor, and will directly help provide fresh, life-sustaining water to our fellow parishioners at Holy Trinity.”

Sacrifice by Students

Cindy Craft, director of religious education in St. Mary, said that there is usually a special Lenten project planned for the program’s children. This year they were approached by St. Mary’s Twin Parish Ministry to participate in W.O.W. Craft agreed that this year’s project was a “wonderful way to bring attention to the need.”

“Some of the children may not have even been aware that we have a twin parish, and this brings it to the parents’ attention as well,” Craft explained. She further noted that the teachers incorporated teaching about Lenten sacrifice into their classes, expounding on the project’s goal to directly impact the lives of others through the giving up of something desired.

Christian Cirone, a sixth-grade student in the parish’s religious education program, participated in the W.O.W. fundraiser. His mother, Lu-Ann, said that although he normally drinks water exclusively, she encouraged him to participate.

“I tried to get him to think about [the issue] … I feel that when there’s a charitable contribution to be made, it needs to be made by him,” said Cirone, who suggested that her son set aside some of his own money each Wednesday to contribute. “I also talked to him about the water problems in Flint, Michigan, and in the Newark public schools,” she continued. Cirone believes that the fundraiser called to light the need for clean water in all parts of the world, including domestically.

Desperate for Water

Holy Trinity Parish is the main parish to which St. Mary Parish donates, with a subset of 13 additional village parishes in the surrounding countryside. Father Vincent DePaul Mukiibi, Holy Trinity pastor, travels to each location to serve the parishioners – all of whom are in need of fresh water.

“When he goes to perform service, it could be out in the open, with no building,” said Eric Libenschek, member of the Twin Parish Ministry. “People have to walk several miles to watering holes, which can be used for washing and bathing as well. The goal [with W.O.W.] is to help prevent disease – that each sub-parish could have its own fresh water storage tank.”

According to Libenschek, the project idea came from Mary Goss, member of St. Luke Parish, Toms River, and director of Yamba Uganda, the New Jersey-based charity that reaches out to “the poorest of the poor” in Uganda. Yamba means “help,” and Yamba Uganda seeks to provide hope – “okusuubira” – in the form of friendship, education, clean water and nutrition, access to medical care and more.

“The average income is less than $1 a day,” the Yamba Uganda website states. “The reality of life in Kasana-Luweero is very desperate. If you have nothing, hope vanishes into thin air.”

Goss began working with the poor in Uganda back in 2000, taking her first mission trip with then Bishop John M. Smith – and as she puts it, “my heart was changed.” The mission evolved over the years, and the 501(c)3 non-profit Yamba Uganda was formed in 2012.

“Water is a basic necessity of life, and so many people in Uganda do not have access to it,” Goss reflected. On her 18th trip to Uganda in February, she remarked on witnessing the desperation of people looking for any water source. “A mother and her son were trying to gather up water in a swamp, and it was like mud.”

Members of the Holy Trinity community and its sub-parishes help determine the best place to install the new storage tanks and wells – called “bore holes.”

“We can put it in the village or near the church,” Goss explained. “We have to have someone to look over it.” And the filled water pails can be heavy to lift, so the people must assist each other to move their water back to homes for washing and cooking.

Water storage tanks are the more sustainable option, requiring no fuel to operate. But solar power for pumping water from the bore hole wells is now beginning to be utilized, reducing the need for petrol to operate the pump. In one village, the water is drawn from the pump into a large storage tank with three taps for the parish, village and school.

The anticipation of water access is immediately evident, as Goss observed in February. And the children were not bashful about their enthusiasm.

“I told the children in the school what their brothers and sisters over here [in New Jersey] were trying to do for them [with the W.O.W. sacrifice], and they came over and hugged me,” she said. “They were very excited – very grateful and happy.”