OTHER PROJECTS — The LifePump isn’t the only project going on at Design Outreach, but it is the main one. As they continue to help, they discover more challenges and brainstorm to overcome those challenges. Pictured from left are Abe Wright, Denise Wagner, Kevin Zylka and Luke Wright. (Photos by Elisa Walker)

WARSAW — Changing the world doesn’t always happen in a big city with big-named people who have money at their disposal. Making a change simply needs an idea and motivation to send it into motion along with people who are willing to step into a new world.

Design Outreach, a nonprofit Christian humanitarian engineering organization, created and installed the LifePump in 2013. Having been on the Water for Good board for nine years, Abe Wright, Warsaw, travelled to the Central African Republic a few times where he heard of challenges occurring with projects.

Soon, his engineering brain began conjuring ideas on how to help, which led him to co-found DO with Greg Bixler, Columbus, Ohio. The two came together with other engineers from their jobs and began developing technology that would provide people with clean water.

“We depend on technology but when it breaks, someone fixes it quickly. It’s like a small nuisance. For a lot of people around the world, who are depending on a hand pump for drinking water, it really perpetuates poverty,” explained Wright. “Common hand pumps break about twice a year, taking 30 days to repair.

“They have to think about where they’re going to get their water, which is going to be dirty. Our goal is to develop technology that’s reliable so communities can develop and thrive.”

There are 844 million people without clean water, more than double the population of the U.S.

DESIGN OUTREACH — While Design Outreach is a locally volunteer-based organization, they partner with organizations to install and work on the LifePumps in other countries. Pictured from left are Denise Wagner, Kevin Zylka, Abe and Lisa Wright.

As the saying goes, water is life. It sustains people’s lives in several ways. The LifePump has been installed in Central African Republic, Zambia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali and Malawi. DO has plans to visit South Sudan as well as install 50 pumps in Haiti during the next couple years.

The first LifePump, installed five years ago, has operated every day without breaking and transformed villages where people now have gardens, have started businesses and been able to expand.

Wright has been motivated to help others ever since a trip he took to Mexico where he was building a home for a family. Rather than a home, it appeared to be a shack to Wright. It was eye-opening for him to see a life like that and realize how much he had in comparison.

“I feel like to whom much is given, much is expected,” he reflected.

Several local churches and businesses have donated funds to DO, resting easy in knowing it will go to a community and make a direct change. Individuals with an engineering skill set looking to volunteer by giving back through their talents are welcome to join DO.

“People desire to make a difference in the world, but feel so distant that they don’t know how to make a tangible difference,” added Lisa Wright, wife to Abe. “We keep seeing people be encouraged that they can be a part of something that’s going to change lives now and for future generations.

“They can’t always fly over and be a part of a relief effort, but they want to be a part of something great and change the world on a greater scale. This allows them to do that.”