FOUNDER, LANDMINES BLOW!
Lombard, Illinois
“In Cambodia, where there was a 30-year
war, landmines were literally dumped out
of airplanes by the millions. They’re in
rivers and streams and trees, they’re under
bridges—they’re everywhere. It’s a constant
threat. You see thousands of people there
missing limbs. So for the poorest residents
of rural Cambodia, getting water means not
only having to walk most of a day just to
bring home a couple of buckets full of often
contaminated water, it also means risking
your life navigating a countryside blanketed
with landmines.
“That’s why my colleague and I began
having wells built. We recently visited five
Cambodian villages where our wells bring
clean water to about 1,800 people. We both
cried the first time we saw the ‘Landmines
Blow!’ sign; we were jumping up and
down and high-fiving each other.
“In one village a woman came
running up to the truck and
grabbed me and just hugged
me—she was speaking so fast
in Khmer that even the
driver had a difficult time
understanding. She was 58
and had never had access
to clean water before. Now
she has a well in her backyard
and can plant a vegetable
garden. She was just over the
top about village kids going to
school because they don’t have
to spend the day getting water.
She wanted me to marry her
son and wanted to know how my
hands were so soft, because she
had spent years in the rice fields.
“I was diagnosed with multiple
sclerosis in August 2005. You can
either have a big pity party, or it
can light a fire and give you more
of a sense of urgency. Getting on an
airplane and flying halfway around
the world with a potentially disabling
disease was scary. But I haven’t come
this far not to move forward.”
—KARIN HORGAN SULLIVAN
. . . TO BUILD
A WELL
IN
CAMBODIA
