By Chelsey St-Pierre
The Suburban

Dorval resident Joshua Morin Surette, 18, is packing his bags to go to Kakamenga in Kenya to visit the community he has been serving from afar for over a decade. The village now has three wells, that they call “Joshua wells” as a result of Surette’s efforts in collaboration with Suitcases for Africa, a grassroots organization formed in memory of Dr. Ebi Kiminani.

Joshua and his mother, Cori-Ann Surette, are longstanding members of St-Veronica’s Church in Dorval, where Joshua says he learned at an early age about community service and volunteerism. As early as age 3, Joshua helped to serve meals at local homeless shelters alongside his family and church community.

“It opened my eyes to how divided the world is. When I heard about the drought in Kenya at age five, I could not ignore it. I started to collect cans and sell lemonade and ask for donations from members of my community,” Joshua told The Suburban.

Joshua’s reaction was unusual for a typical five year old. His mother told The Suburban that his desire to help was easily piqued. “It was innate,” she said. At every birthday party, he decided to forgo gifts and ask for donations towards the well project instead.

By the time Joshua reached 9 years of age, the efforts he had already spent half his lifetime on, finally brought his dream to life across the ocean as the first well was built in Kakamenga, providing clean water to locals.

Today, there are three wells and Joshua hopes to raise funds to add two more to the network. He says that his visit will give him the opportunity to assess the needs of the community firsthand and devise a plan to tackle those issues upon his return.

“It will be an ongoing project. A little town in Montreal can help an entire village in Kenya,” Joshua explained.

On this first trip, Joshua is bringing donations of soccer balls, school supplies and clothes on his trip that he received from the community. n