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Ryan’s Well Foundation

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Anything is possible if you really want it and you try really hard.
Ryan Hreljac, then age 9

Principal: Ryan Hreljac (Canadian) –This organization is a family-run foundation that began with a six-year-old boy. Ryan (now 13), is the young visionary who started this effort for peace and clean water by setting sights on a $70 goal that he believed would buy a well.

With the support of his family and friends, Ryan has increased awareness of water scarcity issues in more than 150 countries, raised well over $1,000,000, and built more than 130 wells in nine countries in Africa and South America to provide more than 200,000 rural villagers with easier water access and dramatically increasing both their quality of life and their productive time. In high demand as a speaker for his “power of one” inspirational message, Ryan has spoken at 7 major international events, 25 conferences, and more than 100 schools. His story has been featured in over 150 media outlets in as many countries and more than a dozen major magazines, including Reader’s Digest and People. He has been interviewed scores of times by radio and television, including three appearances on Oprah. In fact, Ryan has met with a large number of important and famous people including the Princes of Wales and Orange, both the Prime Minister and the Governor General of Canada, and in October 2003, Ryan and his mother were among 15 people who took communion with Pope John Paul II during the 25th anniversary celebration mass for the papacy. He has received many honors for his work, and his powerful message that tenacity and a positive attitude will yield results has inspired tens of millions of people.

Since its inception in 2001, Ryan’s parents have devoted countless hours to the foundation. His mother Susan has spent 40-60 voluntary hours a week on Ryan's Well Foundation, whether on the telephone, corresponding with partners, donors, and well wishers, updating the website, organizing programs, helping with speeches and presentations, and uses her vacation days to accompany Ryan to his engagements—on top of her full time job with the Ontario government. Ryan's father, Mark, a city police detective who works with missing kids, also gives his holidays to Ryan's Well Foundation work. In the summer of 2004, for example, he spent two weeks traveling 15,000 km over rough roads to visit the foundation's projects in Uganda.PeaceDiviners™ seeks to provide a perpetual grant that would replace Susan’s salary to allow her to devote full time to the foundation.

The family has various other needs, both one-time and long-term commitments such as immigration costs for adopted Ugandan boy, Jimmy Akana—whom they rescued from what would have been a short and violent life as a child soldier—and other intermittent assistance as required. Learn more.
 

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