Bartender Doc Hendley, whose nonprofit Wine to Water has brought sustainable water systems to 25,000 people in five countries, has been chosen as one of the Top 10 CNN Heroes of 2009.
The year 2009 marks CNN’s third annual global search for everyday individuals changing the world. Since February 2009, the network has aired weekly profiles of CNN Heroes, chosen from more than 9,000 nominations submitted by viewers in 100 countries. A panel, including retired four-star Gen. Colin Powell, philanthropist Wallis Annenberg and Sir Elton John, chose this year’s Top 10 CNN Heroes.
Doc Hendley
Since 2004, Hendley has traveled to Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda and Cambodia, working with local communities to build clean water wells and sanitation systems.
The 30-year-old first learned about the world’s water crisis when he took a break from college, and his job as a bar-keep, to travel the world. “I began seeing the figures [of] people that don’t have access to clean water — and it absolutely floored me,” he recalls.
After returning to school, Hendley realized that just by using his ability to bartend and create relationships with people, he might be able to help the problem. At the bars where he worked, he solicited evenings to host wine tastings and provide information about the global crisis. By graduation, Hendley’s “Wine to Water” events had yielded enough funding to implement water projects in the developing world.
He approached a local contact, Kenny Isaacs of Samaritan’s Purse, with the intention of handing over the funds for their international charitable water projects. Instead, Hendley found himself in Sudan in the spring of 2004, training to oversee water projects and developing and installing water systems in zones deemed too dangerous for United Nations aide workers — all in the midst of civil war.
“[I was] seeing these people living in conflicts, bullets whizzing by their ears — yet their biggest concern was the huge loss of life because of the unclean water,” he recalls. “That’s when water changed from being my passion to the burden of my life.”
After a year of service in Darfur, Hendley returned to the States and continued his fundraising events while focusing on ways his group could improve upon other water project models.
“Throughout the desert there were bore holes [for wells] all over the place, they just weren’t working,” says Hendley. “Organizations would put a brand new, $15,000 bore hole in a village that already had one; [they] didn’t stop to think that maybe that one is broken or just needs some parts.”
Wine to Water is dedicated to achieving sustainability through education and empowerment of local community members, training them to install, maintain and repair their own water systems. Hendley has found this approach reduces overhead costs, leaving more for investment in water initiatives and local economies. Because his operation is small, Hendley says he’s less deterred by the instability of areas in dire need and is able to access pockets of the world that larger organizations may have to avoid.
To date, Hendley’s group has worked in five developing countries, including India, bringing safe drinking water to more than 25,000 individuals in refugee camps, orphanages, schools, hospitals and a leper colony, as well as directly into hundreds of homes through the installation of bio-sand filters.
In the face of the overwhelming global crisis, Hendley says his work may be a drop in the bucket, but to him it’s nothing short of a miracle.
In addition to receiving $25,000, Headly and the other Top 10 CNN Heroes will be honored at “CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute,” airing from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on 26 November 2009. In an online poll that is open until 19 November, the public will determine which of the Heroes will receive an additional $100,000.
Source: CNN, 02 Oct 2009 and CNN profile of Doc Hendley, 01 May 2009
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