Where water flows from a well of love (From Bournemouth Echo)

Where water flows from a well of love

8:00am Saturday 23rd January 2010 in

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LIFE’S not always easy and we all have bad days. Few, however, could match that of September 7, 2005, for Eddie Martin from Pinehurst Chapel in West Moors.

At 12.45pm on that day, Eddie answered his mobile phone to hear the news of his wife’s death, Myra, who had been tragically killed in a car crash that morning.

After 33 years of marriage, the mother of his three children had died and Eddie had to face the rest of his life without her.

Out of tragedy, however, he was determined that something good might be found.

“I thought, after 33 years, what now?” Eddie says. “Invitations to stay with friends and other suggestions came in, but had no appeal, so I struggled on, returned to work and waited.”

A few months later, the opportunity arose to visit Burkino Faso, West Africa, and in 2006 Eddie travelled to one of the poorest countries in the world, visiting a school run by Christians in the village of Zongo. Spending time there, Eddie discovered the hardship villagers went through in order to get clean water. “For many, every day would start at 5am with a four-mile hike to get water for their family,” said Eddie. “I enquired into what it would take for the village to have their own well and found that £4,000 would give fresh water to 4,000 people.”

Most people presented with the tragedy of losing their spouse would shelter themselves in order to protect their fragile state of mind, but Eddie, with his strong Christian faith, looked beyond his suffering to help others.

He began campaigning to raise money for a well in memory of Myra. The response was so great that he soon had not only enough money to pay for a well in Zongo, but another in nearby village Arbole. These were only the beginning. “The response was amazing,” Eddie explains. “People continued to give money and as a result 11 wells have been built in Burkina Faso.”

The first well completed was called Myra after Eddie’s wife and four years after her tragic death it continues to give clean water and hope to hundreds of people.

Eddie now has a new target to reach 20 wells and can be contacted on 07810 758808 if you would like to contribute.