Mission to Malawi: Colorado volunteers join effort to bring safe drinking water to one of the world's least developed countries

MPONELA, Malawi (KDVR) — It's a country many people have never heard of, and most likely couldn't find on a map. But Betty Samuelson of Monument, Colorado has made Malawi an annual destination for nearly 20 years, traveling the bumpy backroads of the East African nation from village to village, bringing hope to the hopeless in one of the poorest, least developed countries on earth.

Samuelson is one of 19 American volunteers currently in Malawi, Zambia and Tanzania, volunteering with a non-profit called Marion Medical Mission. The charity has worked with local villagers to install more than 50,000 shallow water wells that bring safe, sustainable drinking water to villages where locals often drink from mud holes shared with animals. The group hopes to install 4,000 wells this year alone. Th