Roads to Activism: Traveling Mercies in Afghanistan, Kenya, Haiti and Mexico

Aldo Magazzeni

Monday, 04 Oct 2010 at 8:00 pm – Great Hall, Memorial Union

Aldo Magazzeni organizes volunteer community service projects building wells and water systems around the world through his nonprofit organization Traveling Mercies. Though seemingly isolated, his efforts have a far-reaching impact for the people they serve. Traveling Mercies partners with such groups as Rotary, the Salvation Army, Voices of Women and local churches to plan, fund, and implement its projects. Internationally, his work has included the installation of a well in Eldoret, Kenya, for the care of street children; water systems, day care centers and safe shelters for women and children in the Herat Province of Afghanistan; and the installation of water catchments for the school buildings at the Tashirat Orphanage in Tepoztlan, Mexico. All of this came about after he established a successful business - Champion Fasteners Inc. He then combined his penchant for mountain climbing with a love of community service.Part of the World Affairs Series.

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Traveling Mercies Current Projects – 2009-10

Afghanistan
• Complete 6 water projects in Herat Province. Each will provide clean,
safe water to many thousands of people.

In Partnership with Voice of Women Organization:
• Continue support of existing programs;
• Help create an additional safe shelter for women;
• Provide support for the Women with Drug Addiction Project, the first of
its kind in Western Afghanistan.

Kenya
• Complete a project in Kitui, Kenya designed to organize a community
produced farming program by installing a water well and drip irrigation system. It will involve organizing 25 villages to establish community farming for food sustenance and sustainability.
• Finalizing a project in Eldoret, Kenya involving the completion and
installation of a water well needed by the Sisters of Adoration Order, who care for street children.

Mexico
• Continue to help fund and support the daily school food program.
• Plan, fund and oversee the installation of water catchments for the school
buildings. This will allow the water to be made available daily for the school children, and permit the building of showers at the school for hygiene purposes.
• Organize and help implement a Special Education Program at the school.

Others in need in the U.S., Italy, and Other Countries
• Continue to work with partners, both at home and around the world, to be
aware of, and react to, the immediate unexpected needs of those requiring assistance. Be it hurricane, earthquake, or famine, Traveling Mercies wants to help in any way it can. The work we do is meant to ease the suffering and enrich the lives of those we meet.

2009
Italy
• Provided aid to the devastated earthquake victims in Abruzzo.

Afghanistan
• Built 3 water systems providing water to over 15,000 people and assist
Voice of Women Organization (Suraya Pakazad) to expand the present programs to help abused women.

Kenya
• In partnership with the Jesuits and the International Rotary, provided
a well to a school in need in Nairobi.

Mexico
• Ongoing assistance at the Tashirat Orphanage, helping
with various projects, and support for the children's lunch program.

2008
Herat City, Afghanistan
• Built a water system by installing over 2,800 meters of pipe, delivering clean, safe water from the city water department to four outlying areas, benefiting over 30,000 people.

• Worked with Suraya Pakzad of VWO, organizing gatherings with women who are victims of violence. The events were held with hundreds of women in safe house shelters and the women’s jail. The purpose was to remember and honor these women while giving them a new venue to speak their stories.

• At the Voice of Women Organization, supported and improved offices, technical needs, such as internet services and web design.

Kenya, Africa
• At the Nkaimurunya Primary School, began to assist, in partnership with others, installing a borehole well to supply clean water to over 750 students and thousands of community people. In partnership with Rotary Karen and Water Wells Trust, this project was completed in March of 2009.

• Supported the Sisters of Adoration beginning planning a self-sustaining community in Eldoret.

• Supported families in Nukuru, who are victims of past election violence.

2006-07
Kenya, Africa
• In Kenya, the majority of time was spent in assisting Father Angelo D’Agostino build a self-sustaining village for Aids orphans. A major contribution was implementing the water system on the 1,000 acres designed to care for 1,000 orphans and 200 grandparents.

Ethiopia, Africa
• In Ethiopia, support was given in Mother Teresa’s order, caring for dying Aids patients.

Tashirat - Tepoztlan, Mexico
• Provided support for this community that is caring for the very poor children in the area.

Afghanistan
• Helped support the victims in Afghanistan of those seriously effected by terrible winter storms delivering blankets and food.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Supported and participated with programs at the Salvation Army and the Women of Hope Shelter in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

2004-05
Afghanistan
• The Marastoon Shelter for men, women, and children in Kabul City. 

Support was delivered by purchasing medicine, blankets, clothing, and school supplies while also supplying fabric material to make over 110 uniforms for the school children so they could attend the local government school.



• Worked with Suraya Pakzad, Director and Founder of Voice of Women, an Afghan NGO. The work included supporting the women in the Kabul jail by implementing several training programs and starting a day care center for the children outside of the jail. Also helped upgrade Suraya’s office with many technical improvements.

Water Systems:


• Kalakoo, a village in the Panjsher Valley, near the Hindu Kush Mountain Region. Installed over 500 meters of pipe, pump, and two storage tanks supplying water to over 300 people
• Jasta, a village in the Panjsher Valley, near the Hindu Kush Mountain Region. Installed over 400 meters of pipe, and built storage tanks that supplied water to over 500 people through a gravity fed system
• Kowjan, a village in the Panjsher Valley, near the Hindu Kush Mountain Region. Installed over 950 meters of pipe, and built storage tanks that supplied water to over 700 people through a gravity fed system
• Boassi, a village in the Panjsher Valley, near the Hindu Kush Mountain Region. Installed over 500 meters of pipe, built storage tanks that supplied water to over 450 people through a gravity fed system
• Jamider, a village in the Panjsher Valley, near the Hindu Kush Mountain Region. Installed over 450 meters of pipe, built storage tanks that supplied water to over 400 people through a gravity fed system
• Herat City, connected to the city water system, over 500 meters of 4” pipe and over 200 meters of 2” pipe delivering clean, safe water to the men’s jail, the women’s jail, the female Goharshad High School, and the government compound. This was a benefit to over 20,000 people.

Mississippi, U.S.


After Hurricane Katrina, work was performed in several states aiding the hurricane victims. Also supplied over $15,000 of new computers and supplies to the Harrison Vocational Training School, in Gulf Port, Mississippi.

Biography
Traveling Mercies founder and director, Aldo E. Magazzeni, was born in Abruzzo, Italy in 1949 and lived in a rural mountain village, poor and damaged by the effects of World War II. At the age of 5 years old, he immigrated to Philadelphia, PA with his parents. Aldo graduated from Bishop Neumann High School and was matriculated into Penn State University where he received a B. S. in Business and Humanities. In 1973, while at Penn State, he met and married Anna Ziegler, a graduate of Kimberton Waldorf School and Temple University.

After graduation from Penn State, Aldo entered the work force with the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, Family Division, Juvenile Probation Office. Being a counselor was his early passion and interest. Working with individuals, families and communities was a great experience that proved useful throughout his life. By 1980, Aldo left the court system to begin a new chapter in his life, which included purchasing and developing real estate projects. This included restoration of historical buildings as well as building homes in Jamaica. He also began to start and acquire many small businesses in the retail, construction, service and manufacturing sectors. In 1990 Aldo, with partners, founded Champion Fasteners, Inc., a small start up company that grew from only five employees. Through hard work and small acquisitions along the way, the company grew into a successful operation with fifty employees and recently celebrated the 17th anniversary of the company.

Combining a penchant for mountain climbing with a love of community service, Aldo began performing volunteer service in the US and abroad. Since 1998, Aldo has traveled to, and worked, with communities in Italy, Jamaica, Haiti, Mexico, South America, Bhutan, Nepal, Afghanistan, Kenya, Ethiopia and others. His affiliation with volunteer groups include local churches, The Salvation Army, The Women of Hope, and The Nyumbani Children’s Home, to name a few.

In 2002, Aldo led a local community group to successfully complete the first self-help project in Pennsylvania. It delivered water and sewer to over fifty homes and businesses at a very low cost in South Coventry. Aldo's next projects focused abroad. He helped start and support day care centers and shelters for children and adults in Afghanistan. He has worked to improve hospital conditions in various foreign countries, started training centers in Afghanistan’s women’s prison and personally organized the building of twelve water systems in Afghanistan villages, which provide fresh water to over 75,000 people. Aldo has also traveled and volunteered in Louisiana and Mississippi shortly after Hurricane Katrina. There, with the help of Burlington County and NJ vocational schools, over $15,000 in new computers and supplies were provided to assist damaged schools to begin rebuilding. In 2006, Aldo went to Kenya where he assisted Father D'Agostino in building a self-sustaining village for HIV orphans and installed a very large water system for that village. In Ethiopia, Aldo assisted the Mission of Charity, Mother Theresa's home for people sick and dying of AIDS.

Aldo created Traveling Mercies in October of 2007, a non-profit 501(c) (3) foundation. In 2009, in partnership with the Jesuits and the International Rotary, Traveling Mercies provided a well to a school in need in Nairobi, Kenya. Traveling Mercies has also been assisting Tashirat Orphanage in Mexico for the last two years with various projects, and support for the children's lunch program. Additionally in 2009, aid was provided following the devastating earthquake in the Abruzzo Region in Italy.

Traveling Mercies' purpose is dedicated to helping others, while creating a vehicle to remove barriers between cultures so that individuals can share their strengths, assets and blessings with each other. Human equality is most important and can only be achieved through compassion, love and sharing our life experiences.

Aldo has photographed images and written stories of the places, the people and the work he has experienced during his travels. His photographs of Afghanistan and Kenya, Africa are exhibited within the tri-state area. He also speaks to various organizations, schools and communities to share his experiences and to create awareness, as well as donations for planned projects.


US man helps bring clean water to Afghan villages
Trudy Rubin
Posted: 11/30/2009 05:34:39 PM PST

AS the United States struggles to find ways to funnel aid money more effectively to Afghans, they should take note of the efforts of a Pennsylvania businessman.

Aldo Magazzeni, of Perkiomenville, Pa., builds water systems for poor Afghan communities - for a fraction of what a big foreign contractor would charge.

A tall force of nature with wild graying hair and beard who looks at home among Afghan elders, Magazzeni takes time off from his industrial-fastener business, leaves his patient wife, Anna, to manage their farm, raises funds from schools and Rotary Clubs, and buys the materials for his projects. Poor villagers contribute their labor and host him, and he calls on local engineers for advice.

Voila! For $20,000 to $25,000, up to 10,000 families gain access to clean drinking water in a project for which a contractor would charge at least $200,000. It may not be possible to replicate Magazzeni, who is willing to sacrifice his personal life to help others. But his work shows how much further aid money can go if local people help design and build projects meant to better their lives.

Magazzeni had done volunteer work in Haiti and was an admirer of Paul Farmer, the renowned physician who has set up hospitals in Haiti, Rwanda and elsewhere. Farmer's motto, Magazzeni says, is "I'll teach people how to care for each other. No huge programs. Keep it simple, and people will help themselves."

Magazzeni set out for Kabul in 2004 because of the Iraq war. "I wanted to work for peace in a country left behind in a previous war," he said. He also wanted to climb Mir Samir, the peak described by Eric Newby in his book "A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush." Much like Greg Mortenson of "Three Cups of Tea" fame, Magazzeni reached the summit, but he met Panshiri villagers who took him in.
The locals asked for his help in bringing clean water to their village. They were walking 500 meters down to the Panshir River for their water.

Magazzeni consulted with a local Afghan engineer, went home, sold an antique BMW for $8,000, and returned to the village. Pretty soon, thanks to a holding canal, two storage tanks, a small electric generator and pump, a water system was born. It wasn't long before Magazzeni was committed to six more villages, then 18, creating gravity systems that piped water down to village storage facilities. Ultimately, he found a local Afghan foundation to help maintain the systems.

Through new Afghan friends he met Suraya Pakzad, an activist who runs programs and shelters for women in Herat, a city near the Iranian border that is safer than points to the south and east. Magazzeni and Pakzad soon joined forces, combining her work with women, with his zeal to bring clean water to women and children.

"In Herat, for a lot less money I could benefit so many people," Magazzeni says. He raised more money to connect a women's and men's jail to a main water pipeline. "We dug 2,400 meters of ditches, me and 25 prisoners watched by guards with rifles," he recounts.

What he soon discovered was that big donor agencies like the U.S. Agency for International Development will spend huge amounts to install main lines, but poor communities may never get connected. So he decided to "do things big organizations don't want to do."

He linked up with the Herat water department and engineer Numatullah (Afghans often use one name), a neat, compact man who has become his faithful partner. "I was amazed he wanted to pay for it himself to help poor people," Numatullah told me. "I am very happy to work with him." Together they have completed four projects, bringing water access to more than 25,000 families, for less than $70,000. Local communities provided the labor.

I drove with Magazzeni down the dusty, unpaved alleys of Shalbafant, a poor working-class district of Herat, where families in walled mud brick homes can now tap into Magazzeni's pipelines. Numatullah said he preferred working with Magazzeni to working with local nongovernmental organizations. "Often a lot of local NGOs look to make money for themselves," he said. "With Aldo we use the last cent, so we don't lose any money."

The Afghan engineer also pointed out that international aid workers come with tanks and soldiers for security protection, and never enter these poor alleys. "Masses of people get eliminated from benefits because they don't fit into the structure," he said. Those are the people that Magazzeni wants to serve.

I witnessed the gratitude of the community when I attended a ceremony at the local mosque in honor of Magazzeni's fourth project, complete with a ribbon-cutting over a spigot. Local elders gathered in the mosque along with Herat's deputy governor and two women: me and Pakzad. One community youth said: "Children and women suffered from lack of water in these poor places." Magazzeni, tall and fair in a mosque full of turbans, said, "When people come together and help each other they can fix problems that are making people sick."

What struck me about the ceremony was how fond the local elders were of Magazzeni; he clearly had become part of the community. "What I really cared about," he told me later, "was how many I helped and how many would walk away with a more open approach to others in the world."

Magazzeni is working with students and faculty at the Pennsylvania State University and Burlington County Community College to develop courses where students can work on Afghan water projects. Penn State students raised $7,000 in order to partner with an Afghan village. You can find out more about his projects at www.travelingmercies.org.

As the United States struggles to revise an aid system dependent on big private contractors, there are clear lessons to be learned here. Afghans need to see that their lives can be made better in the near term. Small projects with low overhead that involve local people in their creation may produce a greater impact than something big and grand.

Cosponsored By:

• College of Engineering
• Engineers Without Borders
• Engineers for a Sustainable World
• World Affairs
• Committee on Lectures (funded by Student Government)