“I had a large assembly in my village where I demonstrated how these water filters work and gave one filter per household.”
A village in Southern Ethiopian gets a much-needed water well. Photo contributed by Weyessa McAlister.
When Weyessa McAlister returns to his hometown in Ethiopia, he is welcomed with love and praise.
“Yegna jegna,” the people say in the Ethiopian language, Amharic.
The phrase, which translates to “our brave hero”, is particularly given to those who make a difference for their family and community. In McAlister’s case, the brave one returned from America and provided a much-needed clean water system to the people of Aje, a small village located south of Shashemene in Ethiopia.
McAlister spent part of his childhood on the family’s farm in this rural part of the Oromo region. Working alongside his grandfather, the boy would help grow crops, including corn, that would sustain the family throughout the year.
On some days, McAlister would pile the corn on a donkey, take it to the city and sell it to raise money for school. That routine became common when the young man was only in the first grade.
It was also normal for McAlister to run barefoot to his school, located about six miles away from home. Using only the sun as his clock, the boy would desperately attempt to arrive on time to class. As it turned out, the child became a star cross country runner later in life. And he earned the nickname, “Ace,” for his athletic prowess.
McAlister and his peers in Southern Ethiopia came from various parts of the area to attend school. And they were often happy to have the opportunity to come together, despite how difficult life may have been in the rural region.
The children also found relief when they played soccer outside of school. It was common to see them kicking with their bare feet and playing on a busy road. As large groups of people often walked along the road, which happened to be the only main road in the area, the children would have to stop their game and allow the crowd to pass by.
Although he found joy in sports, McAlister suffered a series of heartbreaks early in his childhood. First there was the divorce of his parents, which caused the boy to permanently lose contact with his mother. Then came the tragic loss of his father, who died due to waterborne illness. A year later, 4-year-old McAlister experienced the loss of his younger brother, who also died for the same reason.
McAlister’s grandfather raised Ace and his sister after the series of tragedies in the family. Eventually however, the grandfather sent 8-year-old McAlister and his sister to an orphanage in the capital city, Addis Ababa. After spending the next few years of their childhood at the orphanage, the two siblings met a Massachusetts man named Steve McAlister.
At the time, Steve and his wife, Rosemary, were already raising a boy from Burkina Faso, along with their biological children. Still, the couple were ready to welcome more youngsters to their home.
So Steve traveled to the orphanage in Addis Ababa, where he found the newest members of his family. The American parents then proceeded to complete the process of officially adopting the siblings.
Ace now reflects on his memories while sitting in his home in Washington D.C. as a 25-year-old man. But the American resident isn’t just here to reminisce on his childhood. Instead, he’s more focused on the present and future of his hometown.
That’s why McAlister is leading an effort to provide clean water in his home village, where his loved ones and many other residents have died from waterborne illnesses.
“Water is life,” the 25-year-old D.C. resident now says. “I wanted to give back to the community somehow.”
The determined young man was a junior at Monument Mountain High School in Great Barrington, Massachusetts when he came up with a plan to combat the issue in his native land. A few years earlier, however, McAlister was a 13-year-old boy who was learning to adjust to a foreign country. His journey in America started with homeschooling, a plan designed to help the young man catch up with the rest of his American peers in academics.
English was particularly a challenge for McAlister, who barely learned a bit of the language when he stayed at the orphanage in Addis Ababa. It was some of the volunteers at the orphanage who introduced a few English words to the children. But most others at the facility used Oromiffa or Amharic, two Ethiopian languages McAlister still speaks.
McAlister became more comfortable with his new home as he progressed through high school. But he was still uncomfortable with the persistent issue back in East Africa. So he embarked on a mission to bring clean water to his hometown.
The first step? Create a GoFundMe account and raise about $6,000 to buy “a bunch of portable water filters.” The next step? An unforgettable journey back to Aje in 2015. Making the trip back to his birthplace, the high school student personally delivered the filters and demonstrated how to use them.
“I had a large assembly in my village where I demonstrated how these water filters work and gave one filter per household,” McAlister said. “I brought my tools to show them how it’s done and also set it up for everybody.”
The relieved Oromia residents still use bali, the same buckets they always used to carry water. But now, thanks to their hero, the village members also get to attach filters to the buckets, making their water much safer to consume and use.
During his return to Ethiopia, McAlister also visited the orphanage from his childhood. As he met with children in his former home, the young man volunteered to teach them English and math.
In 2018, the African hero once again returned to his hometown and distributed more filters. Even after his second trip, however, McAlister wanted to do a lot more for his people. He took the next step in his vision when he attended Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. That’s where he founded H2OPE, a student organization dedicated to providing clean water to rural villages in Ethiopia.
McAlister arrived at Trinity College after a brief stay at Northfield Mount Hermon School, a college-prep school in Massachusetts. It was Northfield’s cross country coach who recruited McAlister, having noticed the young athlete’s elite running ability in high school. For McAlister, though, the institution provided more than just an opportunity in athletics.
“I really caught up a lot in reading and writing,” he said. “They walked me through the college application process. It was a blessing. I took advantage of that opportunity.”
When he arrived at Trinity College, McAlister chose to minor in music production and major in environmental science. While he chose the music minor mostly for leisure, the study of environmental science allowed McAlister to learn about the water system, which ultimately fueled his desire to build water wells in Ethiopia.
The Trinity College student then launched H2OPE. While leading the student-organization, the H2OPE founder used various fundraising initiatives to raise money for wells. Ethiopian coffee and handmade crafts were among the items McAlister sold to increase funding. He also received donations from other community members and organizations, as well as the Student Government Association at his school.
Leaders of Trinity College also joined the effort, providing financial and moral support for their star student. In Addis Ababa, a nonprofit organization known as Drop of Water, which builds water wells, stepped up to lead the effort.
As the pandemic engulfed the planet in 2020 and basically shut down the world, the H2OPE project was also forced to slow down. It was heartbreaking for McAlister to see the delay in his goals. Gradually, however, the structure took shape.
McAlister, who was following the progress of the project while he remained in America, was smiling from ear to ear when he received a letter from Drop of Water in June, 2021.
“This is to officially confirm that the construction of the Clean Water Supply project in Southern region of Ethiopia, Wolaita Sodo Zone has been successfully completed,” the letter stated. “Our field staff members faced many unpredicted challenges during the project’s progress and thankfully they overcame accordingly and reached this success. Like I said, these challenges enforced us to stay longer in the area and complete the project more than the anticipated time frame, we are sorry for the delay . . .”
The Trinity College student also recieved pictures of the structure and photos of the joyous residents. Children, men and women were seen in the images as they proudly operated their new machine for the first time.
Adjacent to the water well, there is a stone with a special inscription. McAlister beams with pride as he reads this stone which bears the name of his school and foundation.
“Clean Drinking Water Supply Project Implemented By Drop of Water for Gurmo village, Wolaita Sodo, SNNP Region. Project financed by H2OPE Trinity College,” the inscription states.
In the coming weeks, McAlister will travel back to Ethiopia to see the structure which is now providing water to at least 100 households. As he makes the journey back to East Africa, McAlister plans to speak with the residents, see the impact of his project in person and create a stronger relationship with Drop of Water, as well as other organizations.
The jegna man expects his project to ultimately make a difference in various ways. He is particularly eager to see a change for young girls who have been spending their days fetching water instead of focusing on their studies.
“They are the ones who travel so far to collect clean water,” McAlister said. “We want to be able to give opportunities for those young girls, to help them do other meaningful things like going to school rather than being trapped in the house, cooking for the family and collecting water.”
In the past year, McAlister has been working fulltime in a company where he is required to handle chemical hazards. He says it has been challenging to make a living while still making time for his project back in Ethiopia.
Still, the 25-year-old vows to never live a life where he only thinks about paying his own bills.
“People my age always think about money,” he said. “But my mission is ‘how can I give back to the community?’”
McAlister remains determined to make a difference in Ethiopia and beyond. As part of his ambitious vision for the future, the D.C. resident previously joined an organization known as Engineering Without Borders.
Working with the group when he was still at Trinity College, McAlister helped design a rainwater collection system for an elementary school in Tanzania. He then prepared to travel to Tanzania with the organization to implement the project. But the group’s travel plans fell apart when COVID came along.
McAlister, who proceeded to graduate from Trinity College shortly after the missed opportunity, now looks forward to what else is in store for the future. But the immediate plan is of course to visit his water well project.
“I’ll be in Ethiopia for about three weeks,” he said. “I will have various meetings and I’ll be visiting the well site and visit my family.”
As he prepares for the trip back home, the Aje native is still thinking back to his childhood, particularly those days where his family would walk 45 minutes to fetch clean water. At the same time, he continues to envision a much different life for his people — a world where they’re not dying from waterborne illnesses or spending hours of their days on finding clean water.
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