Amadeo through Nov 2016, Kunanyi/Mt Wellington: wheeling 100km to raise funds for Hobart charity Water for A Village

Written By Jane Patel

Amadeo Ambrosino is a 10-year-old Hobartian with a large heart and a keen sense of adventure. He and his ‘A Team’ are wheeling up the slopes of Kunanyi in the 2018 Point to Pinnacle in a bid to raise money and awareness of the Hobart based charity, Water for a Village (WFAV).

 Through his own journey of health and personal challenge Amadeo sees the world and those around him with a perceptive clarity. He is keenly aware of the world beyond him and says he is very interested to do things which have a good effect.

 Through November 2016 this interest found Amadeo on a mission to help Catherine and Peter Wheatley (WFAV) raise money to build wells for remote mountain communities in Ethiopia.  Wheeling with friends and family, Amadeo walked 100 km of wheelchair friendly tracks around Hobart.

 Through its ethical and sensitive approach, and with 100% of the funds raised directly reaching its projects, Water for a Village has provided Ethiopian mountain communities with the ability to construct 33 wells and a school in the Simien Mountains. This work has transformed the lives of 10,000 people through access to a continuous supply of clean, mountain water. The flow on effect for these mountain villages has been far reaching.

 Amadeo’s 2016 wheeling helped a community in a small village named Buyit Ras. In this village an 80-year-old man told Catherine Wheatley it was his very first time tasting fresh water. Buyit Ras like all the villages in the Simien Mountains have only ever had scant access to water several kilometres away, a water source they had to share with local animals. Amadeo was given the considerable honour to name the well in Buyit Ras, and he chose the name ‘The Wishing Well,’ forging a timeless connection to our own Mountain and the clean water we are able to drink.

 Not one to hang up his boots however, Amadeo is on his next push!

Borrowing his wheels from Just Like Jack, a Tasmanian charity which enables kids like Amadeo to participate in running adventures, Amadeo’s ‘A Team’ is heading off to raise the stakes; 21 uphill kilometres and more water for another village. If you see him out there please give him a yell -and a PUSH on your way past!!!

 If you would like to support Amadeo’s project you can find him on the Water For A Village Facebook page: @waterforavillage, or find a link on the WFAV website: waterforavillage.net. All donations over $2 are tax deductable.

 In Amadeo’s words:

Dear People,

I want to write to you about Point to Pinnacle. I am starting up a team to raise money for Water for a Village.

Water for A Village is a charity that builds wells in Simien Mountains in Ethiopia. I want to help raise money for Water for a Village because I think it is very hard for people who live with little amount of water and very interested to help. I like that I can do something to help make a well for a village so people can have clean and beautiful water. I think it is very superb.

I raised $1419 in 2016 when we walked 102 km in November. I could help to build a well in a village called Buyit Ras and I called it ‘Wishing Well,’ from name of well on the Pipeline track on Mount Wellington/Kunanyi.

 In November 2018 I am going in Point to Pinnacle in my team. We are called The A Team. I want to raise $4500 to build a water tank. I want to do this so much. I very can’t wait. I very love I can be in Point to Pinnacle. And I love that I can do something very interesting to make a superb thing happen.

 I think I very lucky boy to do this project.

 Amadeo Ambrosino