West Coast Eagles Premiership player Sam “Buttsy” Butler travelled to Tanzania with Water For Africa in 2018.

“To be honest, I’ve done some cool things in my life, but this would probably rank above most of them.”

Sam saw first-hand how Tanzanian people live without access to clean water. He visited a village and tasted the dirty, creek water the children would drink from. “It was nasty, dirty, gritty.” The only water available is riddled with diseases that cause life-threatening illnesses. Then suddenly, a well is built and clear water rushes out of the tap.

Sam Butler, West Coast Eagles premiership player, takes a selfy with a group of children in Tanzania.

“We need to get out of our comfort zone every now and again and be confronted with these kinds of things. Not to get too philosophical, but with everything that’s going on in the world at the moment, we should be more connected.”

He saw a well built which was paid for by Trevor Perriam. A 74-year-old man who was a long time volunteer at West Coast. Trevor would pull the trolley around the grounds with the bibs and the cones, he was still volunteering at the time of his passing. For a long time, he’d throw his coins into tins and eventually those tins totalled enough to pay for a well in Africa.

Sam Butler pumps a newly installed water well in Tanzania.

Every well that is built gets embellished with a plague, noting which well number it is. The well that Sam Butler as a part of building was number 26, his West Coast Eagles playing number!

“He (Trevor) never saw the well, he’ll never see the impact that it made, but he still gave those tins.”

That’s the beauty of 98five’s Watering Day, everyone can be a part of it. We’re inviting you to give a single gift of $2.50 that will change a person’s life with clean water.

Give someone access to life changing, clean water here.

Listen to the conversation with Sam below.