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NEWELL - The Northern Hancock County Rotary Club received a visit Tuesday from a small family that has traveled across an ocean to help others.

Jake and Jessie Schwartfeger have spent the last four years working in cooperation with Rotary International and Overland Ministries to help build wells, schools, and assist in developing a sustainable lifestyle that the people of Zambia, Africa, can successfully continue long after they leave.

While on their yearly four-month visit to their home in Weirton, the Schwartfegers agreed to talk to the rotary about what they do. Right now, their biggest goal is clean water for the Zambians.

"You can't have projects and schools and economic stimulus, and on and on, without clean water," Jessie said.

Jessie explained that water is hard to come by in the landlocked south African country, and most of the time villages will dig a hole until they hit water. The problem with that strategy, Jessie said, is that all the animals of the area also use that water, leading to constant illness.

The Schwartfegers and other workers from their group build bore-hole wells, which are anywhere from 15-60 feet deep and provide a safer, cleaner water source for the Zambians.

The group has also established 18 preschools, which help Zambian children get a head start in education. Without preschool, Jessie said, many Zambian children enter first grade without having thorough knowledge of numbers or the alphabet, which leaves them behind and forced to repeat grades.

When a child gets to be 14 and is still in third grade, Jessie said, that child is usually put to work.

"Not just the girls, but also the boys, the men, are put to work at a very young age," she said, adding that preschool helps the children keep up in grade school and allows them to lead successful and educated lives.

The mission is not all about clean water and education, however, and the preschools help establish a form of communication between multiple villages.

"We can be in every village, in a way, through communication, and through these schools," Jessie said. "We know who's sick and what's going on."

The Schwartfegers also work to establish a higher quality of life for the Zambians, by bringing together families who may be split up by hunger or poverty.

"You can pour billions of dollars into a country and not see a difference," Jessie said, adding that the best way to help is by "building a relationship instead of giving a handout."

Even though they are immersed in the culture and devoted to helping the Zambians improve their lives, Overland Ministries, Rotary International, and the Schwartfegers themselves implement programs that ensure they will be able to leave within a period of years.

"Sustainability is the key word for everything we do," Jake said. "We always think, 'are we training the indigenous people to live well or are they going to be dependent on us?' We don't go in and shove our way down their throat; we serve them."

The Schwartfegers specialize in traveling to villages far off what they term "the tar road," and have always found the Zambians to be warm and hospitable.

"They're a very warm, very inclusive culture," Jake said.