Nadia Dechellis, a grade 3 student at St. Alexander School is just one of thousands of Catholic school children in the Region who donated pennies to help Ted van der Zalm bring water - and hope - to third world nations.

Staying in Africa the better part of ten years, through the mid-nineties, he travelled home for brief periods every three years. During those trips back to Canada, Ted made presentations to schools and other groups, and tried to get sponsorship from corporations who could make a difference in his quest to bring clean drinking water to the people of Tanzania. "The businesses who supported us loved to get photos from Africa displaying their corporate logos on the windmills we installed," he said.
While in Africa, Ted met his future wife, Miriam, a missionary from Italy. Although they didn't know it at the time, they were destined to form a remarkable partnership.

Ted van der Zalm with his "House of Hope." The giant rolling piggy bank is used to collect pennies from elementary school children. The proceeds go to fund the quest to provide third-world countries with clean drinking water.

Ted was asked to get his pilot's license to help deliver medicine and patients to remote hospitals. During one of his brief respites in Niagara, Ted completed an intense program and received his license. "I should have been killed several times, but God has a bigger plan for me," he said, detailing an incident where the engine in his plane blew and he was forced to land in a sugar field.
Shortly after this, Ted met his wife. She had decided not to pursue her life as a nun and Ted helped her return to Italy. "I had been praying for someone to spend my life with," Ted recalled, and on the way home, during a stop over in Amsterdam, Ted had a revelation and realized, "This is the girl God wanted me to marry." He bought a ring, travelled to Italy, and asked her to marry him. He had to spend time convincing her parents he was the right man, but eventually plans to marry were made. She remained in Italy and Ted returned to Africa.
Then, just before they were married, Ted was hitchhiking in Tanzania after his vehicle broke down and he was picked up by a group of men in a land rover. Tragedy struck when the vehicle crashed into a group of Tanzanian soldiers and one was killed. The driver and other occupants fled, but Ted was badly injured and the soldiers beat him into a coma. "I don't blame them," Ted recounted, "They thought I had something to do with killing one of their buddies." The severe injuries he sustained resulted in the loss of his pilot's licence.
But he recovered and returned to Africa where his pay there never amounted to more than room and board but, "The reward was being able to help people and make a big positive impact," he explained. A devout Catholic, Ted said a big part of his efforts were a result of his faith in God. "I believed it was an honour we were allowed to do this. I just think that monetary reward was almost an insult. "
Ted and Miriam now have five children. They returned to Niagara after their missionary work and, along with Ted's brothers, started a greenhouse business. It became very successful, but Ted was unfulfilled. "I felt you don't stay 10 years in Africa to spend the rest of your life growing house plants," he reflected.
He realized schools would provide a setting with opportunities to impact the lives of young people. "Education is a gift I didn't appreciate when I was in school, so I want to help young people appreciate it." He became a chaplain at Holy Cross and pursued a teaching certificate by attending teacher's college in Buffalo nights and weekends.
Currently, Ted is teaching at Denis Morris and pursuing his Masters in Religious Education.
Ted and Miriam each speak five languages. Both are fluent in English, Italian, and Swahili, while Ted is also fluent in Dutch and speaks some Spanish. Miriam adds French and German to her repertoire.
A couple of years ago, he was approached by some Guatemalans who had heard of his irrigation work in Africa. Ted took a leave of absence from the school and he, Miriam, and their four children, aged 7, 5, 3, and 1, went to Guatemala to help them install irrigation systems. The plan was to spend six months there, moving every two weeks to a new village and to establish three garden-plot test sites in each. During their stay, the family lived in tents.
But a few weeks into the project, the villagers from the first location caught up to Ted and said their wells had gone dry.
Ted soon learned the wells only filled during the rainy season and always dried up after that. The villagers had been afraid to reveal this news, for fear they wouldn't receive his help. Ted spent over three weeks digging a well by hand.
Ted continued to dig a hole an incredible seventy-five feet down and barely two-feet wide. There was no shoring, and he was lowered on a rope. In the process, he lost the sight in one eye from dehydration and exhaustion. Soon, the problem of dried-up wells began to repeat itself in other villages, and Ted and Miriam knew the bigger task was to establish a reliable source of water before any irrigation systems would be useful.
He and his family came home to regroup and plan a better way of bringing water to the starving villagers in Guatemala.
"The rainy season provides the only opportunity to grow enough food to feed the people the remainder of the year," Ted said. His proposed solution is to dig permanent wells and outfit them with "sweat-hose" irrigation, a highly effective and cheap way of providing water to individual gardens. Water is pumped into a holding tank, where it seeps out through perforated hoses into nearby gradens.
Not only will irrigation provide food for families, it is no less than a life-giving mission, as it reduces the mortality rate in the young by eliminating diseases such as malaria.
Knowing that digging wells by hand was not an efficient option, Ted mortgaged his house to buy a truck-mounted water-drilling rig. To finance the project, Ted and his only employee, Ed Gladney of Thorold, drill wells in this area with every penny of profit going back into the plan to pay off the rig. To date, they have drilled around 40 local wells.
Ted and Miriam and (now) five children plan on driving the truck to Guatemala, where they'll spend six months drilling for water and training a reputable local group to carry on after they leave. The truck will then be donated to them, and Ted will come home to begin the process all over again.
The whole proposal, especially mortgaging the house, seemed very risky but Ted said, "I believe in this. I had to put my house up-to put my money where my mouth is. And besides, I feel the need to hurt a little financially or how can I ask others to donate?" he asked.
The whole project will require $350,000 in capital funding to complete. Ted soon found the only financial institution that would help him was the Niagara Credit Union (NCU).
Ken Janzen, Manager of Commercial Services at the NCU told the News, "Ted had a business plan and a teaching career as security, but we also knew Ted will do what he says he will do. We know and trust him. It was nice to try and help him out."

"Ted's a guy that just goes out and does it .... he doesn't wait for someone to tell him what he can or can't do." - Ken Janzen, Niagara Credit Union.

Ted constantly says everything happens for a reason and he may be right. It just happened that Ken had spent some time as a volunteer, building a school in Guatemala under the Bethany Missionary Ventures, so he was aware of the plight of the Guatemalans. "Ted and Miriam are a team. I'm constantly amazed at the self-sacrifice," Ken said, adding, "I've never met a man like him."

Ted works with Gladney on the drilling rig after school and on weekends, and in summer months. He has also started the House of Hope, a giant piggy bank mounted on the back of a truck which visits local Catholic schools. He asks the school children to drop a penny in a jar every day and to give thanks for all they have.
"Kids take far too

much for granted. Food, the schools, and the materials. I have a hard time dealing with that," Ted said. "If I can get them to think about everything they have and to give thanks, I know practice will make permanent," he explained.
The House of Hope is just one of the charitable initiatives in which Ted is involved. His parents helped establish the Niagara Warehouse of Hope, an initiative entirely separate from Ted's "Wells for Guatemala," project.
There are some who feel Ted's project is too ambitious and will be difficult to achieve, but Ken Janzen observed, "Ted's a guy that just goes out and does it. He doesn't

Ted with Ed Gladney in front of the water drilling rig they have been using to raise funds toward the "Wells of Hope," initiative. Eventually the rig will be donated to Guatemala.

wait for people to tell him what he can or can't do." And Ted is encouraged by recent global attention to the water problem. The year 2003 has been named the International Year of Fresh Water by the United Nations. They have issued a world-wide appeal for those who are able to help, to do so.
According to the UN report, "The global water crisis will reach unprecedented levels in the years ahead, with growing per capita scarcity of water in many parts of the developing world. Water resources will steadily decline because of population growth, pollution and expected climate change." Ted hopes the increased attention will translate into increased financial support for his efforts in answering the UN call for help.
The penny-collecting has been highly successful. Last year, the copper coins contributed by local Catholic school children amounted to $30,000, which was used to build a school in Guatemala. He believes by helping in these causes, local children will become empowered to help others in the world. He hopes to involve the public school system in future efforts.
"My vision is to have elementary kids bringing a penny to school every day." They will see they can accomplish a lot," he said.

Monsignor Clancy students Charlotte Granitto, Jamie Piper, Holly Woods, Lyla Frick and Julia Angrilli represented their school mates in presenting Ted with $930 worth of pennies.

Monsignor Clancy in Thorold was one of the participants this past year, and Ted says a school that size could conceivably finance one village. "One school, one village-imagine what the effect would be if they could actually see what their pennies accomplished," he said. Toward that end, Ted plans on maintaining a web site to broadcast daily progress when he returns to Guatemala. "I will also invite students to visit as a mission experience, hoping they will learn to appreciate everything they have," he explained.

When Ted and his family return to Guatemala, late in 2004, they plan on drilling 30 wells in 30 villages with each well costing around $10,000 to finance. Corporate help will be essential to meet the challenge.But Ted shows complete faith in a divine plan often calling upon God to show him the way. So far, for Ted van der Zalm, it seems to be working. "I can't tell you how often I meet the right people, or received help exactly when it was needed," he said.
Ken Janzen summed it up, "If God is listening to anyone, He's listening to Ted."

THE MISSION IS UNDER WAY --- UPDATES HERE!!
Those who have contributed thus far
Read More about the project
Read Ted's Story
Join the effort
Scenes from the first annual H20 Down
View a slide show of the people you could help