Most Rev. Macram Gassis
Bishop of El Obeid Diocese, Sudan

Dear Bishop Gassis Friend,

Every day, two or three times a day, 12-year old Asmina puts her life in danger: she walks to the nearest well to get water for her family.

Asmina lives in my diocese in southern Sudan and like other girls and women here and in Darfur, she runs the risk of being raped by Arab militiamen whenever she leaves her povertystricken village to draw water for her family. (To protect her, I am not using the girl’s real name or naming her village, but all the facts about her plight are accurate.)

For someone like you, living in America, it may be easy to take water for granted. But in southern Sudan water is life. And finding water and then drinking that water can mean horrific violence, disease and death.

Will you help me dig a well in Asmina’s village so that she and others can get the clean water they need without fear of violence or disease?

I pray that you will because it breaks my heart to see women in my El Obeid Diocese walking for miles burdened with five gallon containers that, when full, weigh upwards of 55 pounds each . . .

. . . to hear the stories of barbaric brutality and rape . . .

. . . to know that much of the water they are carrying is ridden with parasites that can lead to disease and a painful death.

For more than 10 years my Sudan Relief Fund has been digging wells, providing food, shelter and medical care, and bringing the Gospel of Christ to the men, women and children of the El Obeid Diocese.

We’re rebuilding schools and churches destroyed by two decades of war. We’re training much-needed catechists and teachers. Moreover, we continue to celebrate the Mass wherever the Faithful can gather—in dilapidated churches, bombed-out schools and under trees.

Your prayers and generous support of the Bishop Gassis Sudan Relief Fund have made all these good works we do in God’s name possible.

But now, I need your help most urgently!

I need your help to dig MORE WELLS so women can get the clean water they need to sustain life without threat of rape and violence.

These wells aren’t fancy. They don’t cost much by U.S. standards (about $14,000)—but they are priceless to the people of Southern Sudan.

During the war and in recent years we have been able to dig 250 bore wells in the El Obeid Diocese.

But now with the possibility of renewed civil war and hundreds of thousands of displaced people returning home to southern Sudan, we need another 250 wells dug over the next 24 months if we are to prevent wide spread thirst, water-borne illness, and cruel violence against girls like Asmina.

Before my Sudan Relief Fund began digging these wells Asmina and others had to dig shallow holes in the earth by hand just to get a small amount of muddy water to drink.

Imagine for a moment that you were so parched you would drink from an unclean, muddy hole in the ground.

Imagine being in fear of sexual assault or death whenever you had to venture out to get water for your family.

It’s unthinkable, isn’t it?

It’s hard to believe that in the midst of all this poverty— in this place where Christians and tribal Africans are persecuted, enslaved, and killed by Khartoum’s Islamic government—that the people’s hearts are filled with the love and hope of Christ.

After two decades of genocidal atrocities and crushing poverty, devoted Christians still attend Mass. They ask for rosary beads and bibles. And they want to know if the Church will remain in the region even as others choose to leave.

For decades, while the world watched and the United Nations passed resolution after resolution, the Catholic Church acted.

Even as catechists were tortured and killed, the Church stayed with Her people.

Even as Catholic schools were bombed from the air and innocent school children and their teachers killed, the Church stayed with Her people.

Even as Khartoum forcibly starved the people in southern Sudan, the Church stayed with Her people.

Even as Arab “janjaweed” militia rode into villages, murdering, raping and burning, the Church stayed with Her people.

Hundreds of thousands of poor and persecuted people of the El Obeid Diocese are alive today because of our Church and because of the contributions you have given my Sudan Relief Fund.

In the past your generous gifts to the BGSRF and your love and prayers for my people have made the difference between life and death, hope and hopelessness.

During the rainy season YOU helped us shelter families who had been driven from their huts by high winds and unrelenting rain. Then when the rains stopped you helped us reach isolated villages with tarps, clean water, food and medicines.

YOU helped us build, staff, open and run the first full-scale hospital of its kind in the region.

YOU made it possible for us to ease the suffering of refugees from Darfur with “refugee kits”—blankets, first-aid supplies, soap, tarps, mosquito nets, food, utensils and tools.

YOU also enabled us to bring the Gospel and the Eucharist into one of the poorest, most war-ravaged regions of the world.

Thanks to gifts from faithful and generous people like you, the Church is still giving hope amidst the hardship and horror that is southern Sudan.

But how can I forget the crucifixion of catechist Augustine of El Nor Chapel by Khartoum’s Islamic terror squads? How can I forget the swollen bellies of starving children or the weary vacant stare of refugees, the tears and scars of rape, the hopelessness of slavery? Alas, I cannot forget the physical, emotional and psychological brutality that I have seen perpetrated against our brothers and sisters here.

However, I can go forward toward tomorrow with hope—the unyielding hope that faith in Jesus Christ sustains in me.

And so it is with great hope that I ask you to help me dig 250 wells in this parched, but not God forsaken land.

I estimate that it will cost me $14,000 to dig each well. (These costs include fuel for the truck that carries the rig, geologists to find water, and manpower to run the drill.)

But to dig 250 wells, I will need to raise a total of $3,500,000—no small task.

So right now, I’m going to concentrate on raising the $700,000 I will need to get 50 wells dug in the next three months.

And while even this is a daunting task, I know that if I pray and take it one day at a time, one well at a time, the wells will be dug and life will be safer for the women and families of my diocese.

Yet, now with war on our borders and a flood of returning refugees, our need for the basics like food, medicine and water are especially ACUTE.

That’s why, Dear Bishop Gassis Friend, if you can give this amount or perhaps even $30 or $40 it will go a long way toward getting clean, safe water to a shattered people while there’s still time to do so.

Maybe you can afford to fund an entire well for $14,000? If so, we will name that well after you or in honor of whomever you chose. If you cannot afford $14,000 to fund an entire well, but think you might be able to give $7,000 to fund half a well, I pray that you will ask for God’s guidance in doing so.

With faith in God, nothing is impossible!

Together, with God’s grace, we’ve managed to raise the money we needed to build and open the first full-scale hospital in the region even as we funded thousands of refugee kits, food aid, bush medical dispensaries and the rebuilding of schools and churches. Thus, I know with your help and prayers, and God’s grace we can do this too.

May God abundantly bless you for your charitable spirit and your love for your brothers and sisters in Christ in the El Obeid Diocese.

Sincerely Yours in Christ,
Bishop Macram Gassis
Bishop of El Obeid Diocese, Sudan

P.S. An influx of refugees returning home to southern Sudan is putting a severe strain on water supplies. And many women have to walk 5 miles or more under threat of rape and assault to get water for their families. By drilling new wells closer to villages we can keep Asmina and other young girls and women safe. But we can’t drill for water without a gift from you! So please give as generously as you can today. For if you won’t give in support of our mission to save lives and bring the Gospel of Christ to southern Sudan, who will?