He grew up in Nebraska and during college at the University of Nebraska Omaha he realized that what he wanted to do for his life's work was commit himself to improving the conditions for the people of his homeland. Access to water in South Sudan is extremely limited, resulting in long journeys to collect water on a daily basis. Women and girls are generally responsible for this task which prevents female children from going to school because they must spend their days traveling to remote wells for their families. When Buey explored how he could be most impactful, he decided that what would most benefit South Sudanese families was easier access to water. He founded Aqua Africa in 2011 with a mission to build wells throughout his country. Today, Buey's organization has built nine wells throughout the nation and also invested a development program for the region to improve lives and empower the South Sudanese people. Buey spoke at Roots 2015 about his work, inspiring the audience to think about water's importance in the lives of all of us because, as Buey reminded us, "Without water, nothing can grow."
Our mission is to help communities develop by using access to clean water as the foundation. Over the past four years, we have drilled over 17 wells and installed 1 water tank to serve over 11,000 people a day. Additionally, we have provided Micro Democracy and resource management training to over 2,000 people.
As a native East Africa, Aqua-Africa’s slogan “Without Water Nothing can Grow” holds a special meaning to me. Providing access to clean water via our hand pumps or our high capacity Village Supplier water tank to thousands of South Sudanese brings me tremendous satisfaction. South Sudan offers endless amount of challenges, infrastructure, security, logistics and countless other challenges. These challenges pale to the struggles of casting a vision of development to the people we work with. Because most of their living memory involves ware and destruction, they find it hard to plan, sacrifice and forgo instant gratification for development sake.
Like the classic saying “You are what you eat,” we often think about the impact of agricultural production in terms of its health implication. Meanwhile its environmental impact is treated as an afterthought. Demanding better production practices that takes into account its environmental impact such as water usage in addition to its health impact would go along way.
My experience as an immigrant and now the executive director of an organization has made me appreciate the value of thinking outside the box. It is remarkable to see what we can accomplish when we don’t conform to norms and take a risky by trying new things. When I have the honor of speaking to elementary school children, I often advise them to take risks, learn from their mistakes and never be afraid to fail.
The diversity of thought, ideas, risk, creativity and inspiration.
In the next four years, I want Aqua-Africa to be able to provide access to clean drinking water to 1% of the people living in South Sudan.
Of course, the carrot! Be a part of the conversation #RootsEmpowe2016 All images courtesy of Aqua Africa