About Us

WellWishers is the name of a group of individual Australians who have been donating money to continue a programme of providing Hand-Dug Water Wells in the northern province of Tigray, Ethiopia. This programme was begun by Community Aid Abroad in 1986 and continued by Oxfam Australia (the successor of CAA). Oxfam Australia's work in the Horn of Africa was discontinued in 2005. A few individual supporters of the Hand-Dug Wells programme decided that it was too important to let it lapse. Since 2002, they have already raised funds to build over 200 wells, which forever changes the lives of over 100,000 people.

Individual donors provide varying amounts with all donations being pooled. To facilitate Tax Deductibility, WellWishers pass all donations through Christian World Service which is a registered Australian overseas relief and development agency. (There are no pastoral activities related to the WellWishers programme). WellWishers work with REST (Relief Society of Tigray), an Ethiopian NGO (Non-Government Organisation). REST has been involved in full-time assistance to the people of Tigray since 1978. They have been building wells in Tigray for over 20 years.

	OUR NAME Wellwishers was chosen as the group name after consultation with donors.  It was felt the name encapsulated the programme of providing Hand-Dug Water Wells.
	HOW OLD ARE WE? We were informally established as WellWishers in 2006, with the WellWishers Trust formally set up in 2007.
	HOW DO WE WORK? We seek donations from the general public and forward the funds through Christian World Service to Ethiopia to the NGO REST (Relief Society of Tigray). They select sites, organise and monitor the construction work and provide training for maintenance and book-keeping.

Our Wish

	To supply clean water to all rural Tigray
	To maintain a minimum building programme of 30 wells per year.
	To enable the villages to acquire health and education facilities.

AMBASSADORS

	DI MORRISEY Best selling author Di Morrissey is also supporting. Di Morrissey said, “We can all make a difference to someone else’s life. What is so impressive about this project is that it’s all about positives. Every donation makes a difference to the overall goal of saving lives. Over 140 wells have been built in Ethiopia since 2002. Hundreds and hundreds of lives have been saved by these wells, and WellWishers needs the support of the public to continue building these life changing wells.”
	MELINDA SCHNEIDER Golden Guitar winning Country singer Melinda Schneider says, “I’m urging people to support WellWishers because the fact is that you can change lives through this project. It’s horrific to think that one in five children in Ethiopia will die before the age of 5 essentially because of dirty water. Most rural Ethiopians are living on less than 5 litres of water a day. Anyone can make a difference. I’m asking people to adopt this cause because more has to be done. This project saves lives. It’s a privilege to support it.”
	DAVID BOON “WellWishers is an astounding project. I am proud to get behind this initiative that literally gets in there, builds wells and saves hundreds of lives. Clean drinking water is a vital resource that we all take for granted and it’s shocking to know that some people are dying from their drinking water… something has to be done. The wells built by WellWishers are built in rural and remote villages of the northern Tigray province. A village of up to 750 people benefit from the building of each well. Sometimes more. Anyone can make a difference to this project by just raising funds and taking some action to support the work of WellWishers.”
	MATT WELSH Olympic medallist and swimming star Matt Welsh is backing the project. Matt Welsh said, “I’m asking people to consider adopting this cause because we can all make a difference to the life of someone else. Women in Ethiopia often get up at 5 in the morning, work until 11 at night and spend an average of about 3 hours collecting water 365 days a year – often from dirty puddles, dams and rivers used by livestock. Polluted water is a significant cause of ill health and malnutrition and one of the reasons so many children die. Building a well changes all that. WellWishers is an astonishing project.”

TRUSTEES

The four trustees who are legally responsible for the governance, transparency and accountability issues relating to the Trust, are:

Ross Allan is the Founder of WellWishers. With wife Marianne, they have supported the HDW programme since 2002, regularly visiting Ethiopia to see the plight of the people and the benefits they receive after wells are installed (at their own expense).  Having retired some years ago from his own management company, Ross decided to devote most of his time and resources in helping people wherever he could.  He felt he is undeservedly fortunate to be born in a country as wealthy as Australia and that it’s unfair that social justice is decided upon by places of birth. Ross has recently completed a four-year term as a Director of Oxfam Australia, also serving on two sub-committees.

Robyn Beetham from Canberra, has been an active supporter of WellWishers since early 2004.  Prior to retirement in 2003, she was a career Commonwealth Public Servant, working at senior executive level in a range of Departments, in policy formulation and programme administration. She later served on various governance boards. Recently she has become increasingly involved in community service with organisations such as Rotary, St Vincent de Paul– and WellWishers. She brings a wealth of experience in government and governance processes; strong leadership, policy development, and programme management skills; excellent communication and people skills; and strong representational abilities derived from her background in both the public and private sector, and more recently in the field of community service.

David Langmore has recently retired after a career mostly concentrated in regional strategic planning and development work in Gippsland, Victoria.  For several decades, he was an active member of Community Aid Abroad (now Oxfam Australia) and in 2006 completed a four year term as an elected director of Oxfam Australia’s national board. In 2005, he and his wife travelled for 4 weeks in Ethiopia spending several days with REST [Relief Society of Tigray] staff inspecting a range of water resource projects through various parts of Tigray province.  They were very impressed with the social, health, and economic productivity benefits of these projects.  David is delighted to be involved in creating a channel through which Australians can contribute directly to enable more Ethiopian villages to build desperately needed new wells and other water resource projects.

Graham Romanes [from Melbourne] currently juggles two roles – full-time Honorary Consul-General for Ethiopia, responsible for official Ethiopian matters in Australia and NZ, and running a small business promoting Ethiopian jewellery and artifacts, and Ethiopian Fair Trade coffee. Graham went to Africa to teach in 1971, fell in love with Ethiopia, and eventually returning to Australia to manage the Oxfam/Community Aid Abroad programme in Africa for 15 years.  Aid dollars sharpened his eye for good people and programmes to support.  Graham believes that all good programmes should be strongly tied to community capacity and vision, and in Tigray province, the wells programme is an absolute stand-out, and a proven winner over the last 20 years.