Typically when we consider the work done by community volunteers and service groups we think local — repairs to a local church, fundraising for a local school, sponsorship of local students.

But this year the Rotary Club of Sammamish will take part in a program that is dramatically improving the lives of people which in many ways are a world away from Washington.

In Ethiopia, thousands of men, women and children now have access to clean drinking water, freeing them from the constant fear of water-borne illness, enabling them to feed livestock, and allowing them the time to take part in school and community works programs — all thanks to work of area Rotarians.

It is as global a reach as any well-meaning citizen could hope to have.

Like many great projects, Rotary’s involvement in the lives of the people of Ethiopia grew from the efforts of one driven individual.

Born and raised in Addis Ababa, a city in Ethiopia, Ezra Teshome immigrated to the United States in 1971, a young man with dreams of getting a good education and then returning to his homeland.

In the midst of his studies at the University of Washington, however, a wave of mutinies and uprisings brought bloodshed and uncertainty to Ethiopia. Iconic leader Haile Selassie died, and a group of junior army officers imposed a military dictatorship.

It wasn’t until the early 1980s that Teshome was able to return home. What he saw there was the motivation for a career of inspired benevolence that now distinguishes him.

On his return to America, now a successful businessman, Teshome remembered the desperation and poverty he had seen in his native country.

“I knew that I wanted to join an organization that would benefit both local and global projects,” he said. “I had a colleague who was in Rotary. He suggested I come along to one of the meetings, and I remember being very impressed with these people, who had no connection with these other countries, but were working hard for them and raising money for them.”

That was the University District club, 1984.

Teshome soon found himself more and more committed to numerous Rotary projects, and in 1995 he returned to Ethiopia for the first time as a U.S. citizen.

The goal for Rotary then was the eradication of Polio, a goal that still drives the organization. When they began in 1985, Polio was in 165 countries. Now it is in four.

Even for someone familiar with conditions in Ethiopia, Teshome admits to being taken aback by what he saw on that trip.

“That was very educational for me,” he said.

He returned to America with a goal to raise enough money to build 100 homes, at $2,000 a home. The next year he was back in Addis Ababa with a group of Rotarians, building those homes.

Then it was a micro-banking project, then polio vaccinations, and since the late 90s Teshome has made one or two trips to Ethiopia a year, usually with a handful of Rotarians in tow, and every time he is welcomed by royalty and villagers alike.

Following their successes against Polio, the Rotarians saw that clean water was another challenge where they could make real inroads.

“When we got back, one of the U-District rotarians said he would put up $50,000, for Rotary to match,” Teshome recalls.

From that start, Rotary clubs around Puget Sound raised $370,000 and a year later a team of workers, led by members of the Addis Ababa Rotary Clubs, built water wells and developed springs in 27 villages.

“It is amazing to see the joy of the villagers,” Teshome told the Sammamish Rotary Club earlier this year. “They want to celebrate with you. And they try to give you everything they have.”

The immense gratitude of the Ethiopians is testament to the stranglehold that a lack of clean water holds over their lives.

Of the more than 80 million people that live in Ethiopia, less than 13 percent have access to clean and safe water.

Eighty percent of diseases there are water borne, and they claim one child per 15 seconds every day.

These are numbers that the aid commercials have desensitized us to. But the Rotarians who have taken part in these grueling, labor-intensive missions understand the real worth of what they do.

“At the slightest scene of water, people and animals are seen cherishing it,” Teshome said.

In October of this year, a group of Sammamish Rotarians will join Ezra in the mountainous terrain of Northern Shoa, as they seek to bring health and liberation to the villagers there.

For more information about the Rotary club of Sammamish go to www.sammamishrotary.org.

For Issaquah Rotary, go to www.issaquahrotary.org.