"wine to Water"10th annual fundraiser and silent auction aiding South Sudan

Silent Auction, heavy hors d'oeuvres, short film and tasty wine all in support of bringing clean drinking water, sustainable agriculture and better health to a remove area of South Sudan.

This is the 10th annual Wine to Water in support of the Alaska Sudan Medical Project. www.alaskasudan.org The evening features lots of great food, wine, silent auction items and a new, short film by Todd Hardesty—featuring the ongoing work in Old Fangak, South Sudan. For the past 11 years the Alaska Sudan Medical Project has worked closely with Bethel Dr. Jill Seaman supporting her efforts providing some of the basic health care needs in Old Fangak.

In 2007 Alaskan Dr. Jack Hickel visited a remote village in Sudan called Old Fangak at the invitation of Dr. Jill Seaman, another Alaskan doctor who had been working in Sudan for over 20 years. What Dr. Hickel saw astounded him. Even though Dr. Hickel spent 17 years previously working in Africa, he found a level of poverty and lack of infrastructure that was beyond anything he had ever witnessed. “The worst humanitarian crisis I’ve seen,” he told friends. In just a ten-day period Jack watched several villagers die from preventable diseases and malnutrition. Thirty years of civil war had devastated this area of Sudan.

Dr. Seaman was single handedly running a clinic that was overwhelmed by thousands of patients. The people of Old Fangak had been forgotten. Due to a lack of roads and the logistical challenges of reaching the area, few other aid organizations had ever been to Old Fangak. Dr. Hickel returned to Alaska determined that he was going to help. In 2008 he recruited a group of dedicated local volunteers to start the Alaska Sudan Medical Project, ASMP.

In the last 10 years ASMP has drilled with 23 water wells, helped over 100 family farms with basic tools and seeds, built the only medical clinic in Old Fangak, and now is preparing to construct a clinic building for care and treatment of tuberculosis and HIV. The money r