Freedom & Clean Water for the Soul - A World Away – And Based In Greenville – Charity Frees Children, Delivers Clean Water
The children she helps thousands of miles away cannot.
It's been nine years since Kelley traveled to a village in Sierra Leone to watch her coworkers and a local crew drill a water well. As the crew was setting up, Kelley saw a mother from the village walk past, a daughter by her side and a toddler strapped to her back.
'I followed them,' Kelley says. 'We came to … the technical term is an 'open well' … but it's a hole in the ground. The water has bugs and debris. It's gross.'
The woman's daughter hooked a bucket onto a long stick with a notch. 'She lowers the bucket into this well and pulls it back up. The mother puts the bucket on her head, and they slowly start back up the path.'
At that time, Kelley had been with Greenville-based Set Free Alliance for six months. Today, she is its CEO.
'Watching, I understood how important this work is. My two kids were about the same age. The only thing separating our two families was where I happened to be born and where they happened to be born. I had overwhelming gratitude. My kids can turn on any faucet in our house. And that water is clean. But this family … this water would probably make them sick.'
Because Set Free's work is funded solely by donations, the work is not impacted by recent cuts in federal aid, says Andrew Hendricks, an Upstate native and Program Director of Set Free. 'Set Free is proud to not skip a beat.'
The Christian-based charity was founded by Upstate engineer Roland Bergeron, who led missions in the early 2000s to drill water wells in Honduras.
'Roland realized that we were doing the right thing, but in the wrong location,' Kelley says.
Bergeron switched the group's focus to Liberia and began fundraising with Brookwood Church in Simpsonville to purchase a drill rig. He partnered with the Christian Revival Church Association in Liberia.
'They actually practiced drilling on the campus of Brookwood Church and shipped it over. In the first years, it was him flying over with a couple of people from the United States who would find indigenous Liberian crews and train them to drill water wells,' Kelley says.
Bergeron turned over his home-building business to his son in 2010 and began working full time to bring water and Christianity to Liberia, Sierra Leone and India.
He also established the organization's model: partner with a local pastor and a local drilling crew; help pastors establish churches; train crews to drill and repair wells and then verify their work.
'If you don't have training, you don't know that this $5,000 well isn't working because of a 50-cent seal. That's the most common part that goes bad, and they're readily available in village markets,' Kelley says.
Set Free finished its work in Liberia two years ago and donated the equipment to a local organization.
But Set Free's work in Sierra Leone and India was already progressing and continues – establishing churches, drilling wells and repairing wells.
In India, the life-giving and lifesaving mission expanded to include medical clinics and and freeing children from their slave labor in brick factories and slate quarries.
The mission to rescue children also began with Bergeron, who has since retired and passed leadership to Kelley.
'Our main partner took Roland to a mine and showed him that the mine was full of kids in slavery,' Hendricks says.
Bergeron was determined to help.
'In the middle of the night, we go into these mines, brick factories and take kids out. It's a massive undertaking, an undercover operation that takes tons of planning,' Hendricks says.
'Most people doing this work are pastors, and they're putting their lives on the line.'
Typically, the rescues occur during a Hindu festival, when mine operators are partying and distracted. Civilians don't carry guns in India, but the work is dangerous, Hendricks says. During an early rescue, three pastors were caught, beaten and killed.
Up to 100 rescuers hike through the woods to remote locations and walk back out with as many as 2,500 children, who are taken in different directions to dozens of waiting vehicles, Hendricks says.
About 1,200 rescued children live at a campus built in 2018.
'They go to school. They play. They worship. They're truly loved and cared for and are reminded that they're worthy of living and being reunited with their families,' Hendricks says.
Almost three-quarters of the children return to their families, but it's not possible if parents have died, can't care for the children – or if they are the ones who sold their children into slavery, he says.
About 10,000 rescued children live with pastors and in church homes across India. 'A pastor and his wife usually have about 10 children in their care,' he says.
Some girls make Wellas – colorful stuffed elephants handmade from scraps of material donated by young women who work in the tailoring industry.
'They're all different. They're so beautiful. The girls practice sewing and send them to us. We use them to talk about the need for clean water,' says Emily Scurry, Set Free's Director of Operations and Events. 'I have one in my breakfast room. I look at it every morning and wonder about the girl who made it, wonder what her life is like.'
Set Free is nondenominational. But it is a Christian ministry.
'The foundation of everything we do is to open the doors for our pastor partners to share the gospel and plant churches. It's why we use local indigenous pastors who know the language, who know the culture,' Kelley says.
'Our work is not conditional. Drilling a well is not conditional on the village becoming Christian. But when a humanitarian need is met, the natural organic growth of the church starts.'
Hendricks, who aspired to do mission work, hadn't realized that Set Free operates from his own backyard. 'There's amazing work happening around the world, and that ministry is based here in Greenville.'
For information about Set Free Alliance and its humanitarian work, go to www.setfreealliance.org.
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Freedom & Clean Water for the Soul - Greenville Charity Frees Children
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Chicago Tribune
a day ago
- Chicago Tribune
Edward Keegan: Happy 10th birthday, The 606! Here's why you are worth celebrating.
An architect eagerly awaits the opening day of a building as it usually offers the most faithful presentation of their design. But it's quite different for a landscape architect. The first day merely what their design is about. It takes years — and patience and a little luck as well — to realize their intentions. Thus The 606 — now 10 years old — has just started to demonstrate its full potential. From the start, The 606 was a different kind of park. It's built on the imposing concrete bones of the Bloomingdale Line — a century old piece of industrial infrastructure that raised active railroad lines 20 feet above street level to alleviate pedestrian deaths that had plagued the city's rail lines. The then-abandoned tracks were identified as a potential bike trail by 1998 and the advocacy group Friends of the Bloomingdale Trail was founded in 2003. Chicago architect Carol Ross Barney led an early community engagement process that produced the Bloomingdale Trail and Park Framework Plan in 2012 and contained the basic design for the 2.7-mile-long park. The subsequent development of those designs, including the critical landscaping scheme, was completed by Brooklyn-based landscape architect Michael van Valkenburgh and opened to the public in 2015. In a city where almost everything is on a strict grid and flat, The 606 is neither. As built in the 1910s, the structure is a generally constant 16 feet above street level and 30 feet wide. The Bloomingdale Line acted as something of a brute force insertion within the Wicker Park, Bucktown, Logan Square and Humboldt Park neighborhoods, with its massive concrete walls dividing north from south in a most unsubtle way. While The 606 kept most of these imposing concrete structures intact, the designers constructed a highly varied topography within the original walls. The paved 14-feet-wide trail rises and falls while undulating between these walls. As befits a park, The 606's built elements are few: the paved trail, custom light fixture and galvanized steel rails that prevent visitors from falling off the structure cover most of these. The gridded metal fences stand atop the old concrete walls and are less obvious now, often providing support for climbing plants that soften the overall effect and help screen the park from the city. The buildings on each side of the trail are less a factor than they were a decade ago. The landscaping obscures many of the neighboring structures, which is certainly for the best along much of the eastern blocks. Ironically, the lushest landscapes occur toward the western end where the plantings often block views of older and more architecturally distinguished buildings. Street signs are located at every street crossing, but they're discrete enough not to distract and it's easy to walk for blocks without being aware of your precise location. Specific spots along the trail offer unique experiences. One of the more memorable spots at the park's opening was the thicket of quaking aspens east of Drake Avenue. Their reedy stick-like appearance in youth was striking, but the stand of trees has matured to create a unique soundscape where their fluttering leaves define a downright magical and distinctive place. One of the wider spots between the old railroad walls is located between Kimball and Spaulding avenues where a mounded lawn provides a more traditional park space for lounging. And the wide paved plaza above Damen Avenue is designed to display art, but was unfortunately bare on a recent visit. When the railroad tracks connected transportation networks, the 16-feet-high walls separated neighborhoods. With The 606, those connections were returned to the communities on each side of the park. But it hasn't come without unfortunate consequences, with gentrification being the most obvious. Barney recalls the early community meetings: 'One of the things that was most obvious to everybody was a lot of disparity in terms of the (lower) income and amenity investments on the west side of the trail (versus) the east side of the trail. We were looking hard to get a good design concept, but they also wanted to bring the neighborhoods along the trail together.' Community stakeholders raised questions. 'Even while we were doing it, there was criticism that it wasn't going deep enough,' Barney said. 'The role that architecture plays in this, or planning or landscape architecture is an important one, but it is not the only place or necessarily the place where the issue is solved.' The addition of the architecturally distinguished Encuentro Square — designed by Jaime Torres Carmona's Canopy / architecture + design — at the western terminus has been a bright spot for affordable development that benefits from proximity to The 606, but that hasn't been the norm over the past 10 years. Clearly, more work needs to be done. There was nothing obvious about the old Bloomingdale Line that led to its revival as a park, but many Chicago citizens seized the opportunity and their dogged efforts over many years now pay dividends through the park's enduring beauty. Originally built to promote movement, it's unexpected that The 606's transformation would create a place of refuge and respite. But that's what it has become over the past decade through thoughtful and truly innovative design that excels at the big things and the little things. Its maturing landscape continues to surprise in the best ways — providing ever-changing experiences that make every visit fresh and new. And that's worth celebrating and emulating. Edward Keegan writes, broadcasts and teaches on architectural subjects. Keegan's biweekly architecture column is supported by a grant from former Tribune critic Blair Kamin, as administered by the not-for-profit Journalism Funding Partners. The Tribune maintains editorial control over assignments and content.
New York Post
5 days ago
- New York Post
Lucky NYC traveler finds $27K diamond in an Arkansas park — now she has a special use for it: ‘I got on my knees and cried'
She's a local rock star. Bidding a temporary farewell to the Big Apple boded well for future bride Micherre Fox, 31, who stumbled upon a 2.30-carat white diamond — worth around $27,000 — during a three-week hunt at the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas. It's a finger-licking find that's saving her fiancé a handful of dough. 5 Fox spent several weeks scouring through an Arkansas park, looking for a diamond for her engagement ring. Arkansas State Parks 'Having never seen an actual diamond in my hands, I didn't know for sure, but it was the most diamond-y diamond I had seen,' the Manhattan-based millennial raved in a statement. 'I got on my knees and cried, then started laughing.' Fox, a recent graduate school grad, decided to celebrate her academic achievements with an excavating adventure through the park's diamond-search area, a 37.5-acre landmark, where over 75,000 stellar stones have been unearthed since the early 1900s. A staggering 366 diamonds have been registered at Crater of Diamonds in 2025 alone, including 11 weighing more than one carat each. Fox did not immediately respond to The Post's request for a comment. But now, she's laughing on easy street. 5 Fox experienced an array of emotions — including tearful shock and laughing excitement — upon finding her diamond on the last day of the hunt. Arkansas State Parks With the national average cost of an engagement ring totaling $5,500, per a recent study, Fox and her groom-to-be, who fully supported her decision to dig for her own diamond, are coming up roses ahead of their big day. Owing to the high price of weddings, which can cost couples across the country more than $26,000 — and the lovebirds near NYC over $58,000 — every penny counts. Rather than blowing their budget on a ritzy rock, Fox was more than eager to take engagement matters into her own hands — quite literally. 'I was willing to go anywhere in the world to make that happen,' she said. 'I researched, and it turned out that the only place in the world to do it was right in our backyard, in Arkansas!' 5 The largest diamond ever discovered in Crater of Diamonds State Park was a 40.23-carat rock, which is now part of the Smithsonian's mineral and gem collection. Shutterstock / VioletSkyAdventures Well, it's not so much 'our backyard' as it is 1,200 miles away from New York — but hey, who's counting? 'There's something symbolic about being able to solve problems with money, but sometimes money runs out in a marriage,' added Fox. 'You need to be willing and able to solve those problems with hard work.' And work, she did. The brunette kicked off her weeks-long search on July 8, spending hours combing through the grounds at Crater of Diamonds for bling. Daily, she'd hit the trail, desperately looking high and low for that glitzy glow, but would routinely come up empty-handed. Fox's luck, however, changed at 11 a.m. on July 29, her final day at the park, when she noticed something shiny by her feet. The nearly-wed initially assumed it was an iridescent, dew-covered spiderweb. 5 Fox initially mistook the stone for a spiderweb until she got a closer look and discovered it was, in fact, a diamond. Arkansas State Parks But after giving it a slight nudge and noticing its gleam, Fox realized she'd scored treasure. Experts at the park's Diamond Discovery Center confirmed that Fox had found a white, or colorless, diamond weighing more than two carats. It's approximately the size of a human canine tooth. The gem — which she's named the Fox-Ballou Diamond — in honor of her and her fiancé, reportedly boasts a smooth, rounded shape and beautiful metallic luster, typical of most Crater diamonds. It is the third-largest diamond found at the park, thus far, this year. Park officials are happy for the soon-to-be married gal. 5 Park authorities confirmed the weight and color of Fox's sweet fine, and congratulated her on the dazzling discovery. Shutterstock / VioletSkyAdventures 'Ms. Fox's story highlights the fact that, even when putting forth your best effort, being in the right place at the right time plays a part in finding diamonds,' said Waymon Cox, Crater of Diamonds State Park Assistant Superintendent, in a statement. 'After weeks of hard work, Ms. Fox found her diamond sitting right on top of the ground.' A satisfies Fox is grateful that her search was successful — and that it's now over. 'After all the research, there's luck and there's hard work,' said the belle, who plans to have the rock set in her engagement ring. 'When you are literally picking up the dirt in your hands, no amount of research can do that for you; no amount of education can take you all the way.' 'It was daunting!'
New York Times
5 days ago
- New York Times
How Do I Tell My Religious Friend to Stop Inviting Us to Church?
I've recently become friends with a woman who is an evangelical Christian. I am not religious myself but have studied Buddhism for a time and hold firmly that one should not overtly try to convert others into believing the same things I do. My friend and I both have daughters the same age, as well as younger sons. Our kids enjoy spending time together and benefit from one another's companionship. My dilemma is that this friend often socially extends invitations to us that are religious in nature. For example, she recently invited my daughter to join her daughter for Bible study. She has sent invites for us to send our kids to the Christian camps where her children attend camp. Although I see these invites as well-meaning, they make me deeply uncomfortable, especially because I don't understand the intention. I have mentioned to her casually that we don't attend religious services or church. Yet despite this, we still receive invites to their church events. Given that I have a strong personal feeling against trying to convert others to any belief, should I say something to her? — Name Withheld From the Ethicist: Christianity became a world religion by spreading the Gospel — a word that comes from Old English for 'good news.' The term 'evangelical' itself goes back to the Greek for 'bringing a good message.' So your friend, in wanting to share her faith, is following a tradition that's central to Christian history and belief. Still, in a tolerant, pluralistic society, people will inevitably disagree about what counts as good news. And she knows you're not a churchgoer. Part of what keeps the peace is recognizing that convictions about the ultimate questions don't have to be shared and that not everyone wishes to participate in religious life. Your discomfort is reasonable. You have no interest in converting anyone, and it's fair to expect the same restraint from others. If the invitations keep coming, you're within bounds to be direct. You can tell her that you respect how important her faith is to her, and appreciate how well meant her invitations are, but that you and your family simply approach these things differently and aren't interested in church activities. Reassure her that this isn't about valuing her friendship or your children's any less and that it doesn't reflect any lack of enthusiasm for spending time together. And if conversation drifts toward what you each believe — in a spirit of openness and curiosity — that's fine too. At its best, friendship can absorb these differences and even grow stronger by having them out in the open, handled with candor and care. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
