Our Lady of Sorrows parishioner inspired by Charlevoix-based friend to build much-needed water wells at East African schools
FARMINGTON ─ It was eight years ago for Doug Buday, business manager at St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Charlevoix in the Diocese of Gaylord, when his longtime friend stopped by his office with a question for him.
“She said, ‘Do you think we can drill water wells in Tanzania?’” Buday recounted. “And I said, ‘Sure we can, if God wants us to.’”
Georgenne Lindberg had just returned to her home in Charlevoix from Florida, where she met Sr. Rosamunda Massawe, CDNK, of the Sisters of Our Lady of Kilimanjaro, who are based in Tanzania in East Africa. She learned from Sr. Rosamunda the heavy burden of not having access to fresh water: educational losses for children, illnesses such as cholera and diarrhea, unsanitary hospitals and clinics, and other health and economic consequences.
Sr. Rosamunda shared that instead of learning in the classroom, children at St. Joseph Primary School in Rombo, Tanzania, would spend some of their school days transporting buckets of water 3 kilometers (1.86 miles) to their school building.
Buday helped his friend find contractors in the region and contact the local bishop near the Tanzanian school. Before long, parishioners at the Charlevoix parish had raised more than $30,000 to pay for a well at St. Joseph Primary School. Lindberg and her sister, Suzanne Bruning, traveled there in early 2019 to oversee the construction.
With continued financial support, an organization was established to build additional wells. They named it St. Joseph’s Wells and established it as a 501c3 organization in 2023.
Buday became a member of the board of directors and treasurer of St. Joseph’s Wells. He moved to Farmington Hills in 2022 and became a parishioner at Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Farmington while working as the mission support director at Our Lady of Loretto Parish, St. John XXIII Parish and St. Valentine Parish in Redford Township; and St. Genevieve-St. Maurice Parish in Livonia.
Even after moving to the Detroit area, he continued to volunteer for St. Joseph’s Wells. He has been to Tanzania three times to see the progress of the wells and meet the people in the communities they serve.
“It’s hard to explain how dramatically different it is there,” said Buday. “For their whole life, the local people have had to walk two or three kilometers just to get water to do dishes or to cook. They’ve literally been praying their entire life for water, and you cannot believe how happy they are to have this most basic necessity.”
Some communities get water from the government, Buday said, but the tanker trucks often don't come or are delayed. Without water, hospital surgeries are compromised, bathing becomes impossible, and illness takes hold.
St. Joseph’s Wells receives financial support from parishioners from other parishes in the Archdiocese of Detroit, including Sacred Heart Parish in Grosse Ile and Corpus Christi Parish in Detroit. One supporter comes from Our Lady of Sorrows.
After moving to the area, Buday joined the Hope and Healing Prayer Team at his Farmington parish. Through the ministry, he became friends with Chuck Nagi, a longtime parishioner at Our Lady of Sorrows. Nagi was interested to learn from Buday about St. Joseph’s Wells.
Since retiring from his job as an electrical engineer with Ford Motor Company in 2021, Nagi had been praying for opportunities to serve others in retirement.
When St. Joseph’s Wells faced difficulties drilling a well near the Indian Ocean, Buday tapped Nagi to consult on the desalination of the water. Nagi continues to collaborate on projects as needed.
In college, Nagi was required to take a fluid mechanics course. At the time, he felt it was a waste of time for his electrical engineering degree. Now, he sees that God knew all along that he’d use the knowledge from that class one day to build wells.
“I feel like the Lord has been leading me on a path throughout my life and my engineering career in developing my skills and abilities,” said Nagi. “Helping with St. Joseph’s Wells is leveraging those engineering, business planning, and communication skills to get projects done.”
Even more than that, Nagi said, it helps in building his faith. Nagi and Buday are both students with Encounter Ministries and, in addition, pray with people at their parish on the Hope and Healing Prayer Team.
“Did I ever imagine I would be working to support a ministry in Africa? I didn’t,” Nagi said. “To learn that there’s a Catholic ministry out there doing this great work and then be able to support them is a prayer answered.”
Buday hopes to bring his friend to Tanzania one day to see the wells he is helping to build there and the lives being changed. At one school where St. Joseph’s Wells installed a water well, enrollment increased from 500 to 1,400, adding three new dormitories, a farm and a banana plantation – all because there is now water on site.
As the St. Joseph’s Wells motto states: “Water is life.”
“When you have clean water, it changes everything,” said Buday. “I’ve been blessed to attend the graduation ceremonies at a couple of these schools in Tanzania, and the girls will come up to us and thank us because now they can wash their hair. Something we take for granted here means so much to them.”
Founder Lindberg passed away last year, leaving a legacy for the organization that board members, donors, and supporters are carrying on in her memory. To date, St. Joseph’s Wells has built 18 wells at Tanzanian schools, hospitals, orphanages and other places of need. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they built three wells despite the global shutdown. New wells are currently in progress, with others in the planning stage.
“I got involved because I was acting on what the Lord brought in front of me,” Buday said. “I know this is God-driven because I didn’t know anything about drilling wells, and (Lindberg) was an interior designer. But somehow, He made it all happen, and it’s a blessing.”
