The appeal of the Ospreys has reached central Africa thanks to the region's commercial partner RWE npower renewables.
One of the company’s employees, David Raggett, a hydro engineer from North Wales, recently made a visit to Sudan to lend his expertise and practical experience to the local community of Bethlehem near Yambio in the south of the country, where he helped install a rain water harvesting and storage facility to the roof of a new church.
David, from Deganwy, spent more than a week in Africa's newest country, supporting the community after RWE npower renewables, donated £1,000 to the project to buy tools and material for the work. As part of the visit, David presented local children with Ospreys jerseys, which were worn with pride by the recipients.
?David said:
“In South Sudan, water is a precious commodity and creating methods to store every drop is life-saving to the 300 people in Bethlehem.
“Nzara where we stayed is a typical village for the area, we were privileged to stay in a brick building with a corrugated steel roof as the majority of people in the village live is small houses consisting of mud brick walls and a thatched roof.
“Ruth (my wife) helped teach at the local school in Nzara which was build with money donated by the church and consists of two class rooms and currently has 120 children. While in Nzara we also gave out the Osprey shirts that we donated by Npower Renewables.?? I travelled from Nzara back to Yambio and then on to Bethlehem to investigate the installation of a rain water storage system.
“After spending some time at the church measuring up I returning to Yambio to look in the market for materials. We manages to procure some guttering from the market with money given to us from the Dolgarog community benefit committee and then spent some time at the church installing the gutters with a local builder Gabriele and George, an American student who was spending a year in Nzara as part of an exchange programme.
“George is going to carry on the project for installing the water tank and complete the piping in the coming weeks. I spent some time talking through the project George in order to pass on some knowledge and I will keep in contact with him in order to provide support.?? On Sunday 6th November we attended the opening of the church as this had been the first brick built church in South Sudan for over 50 years and was therefore a big occasion attended by over 1000 people.”
?As partners of the Ospreys, RWE npower renewables provided David with six children's rugby shirts for him to take with him while his colleagues at Dolgarrog Power Station are also collecting pairs of glasses, mobile phones children's books and clothes for the villagers along with a donation of £500 from Dolgarrog Community Benefit Committee.
?Katy Woodington, UK Community Investment Officer for RWE npower renewables, said:
"We are delighted to be supporting David's trip to Sudan to undertake such vital and life-enhancing work.? It is great to see staff wanting to use their own time, resources and money to support such worthy projects.? Last year our staff contributed more than 1,700 hours volunteering in their own time with organisations.”
Andrew Hore, Chief Operations Officer at the Ospreys added:
“We are delighted to be associated in a small way with this project and the fantastic work carried out by an employee of our partners RWE npower renewables. It is a scheme that will make such a big difference to the lives of the local people and David’s efforts deserve recognition. To see the young villagers in the Ospreys shirts is fantastic, and will certainly brighten the day for all supporters.”