Student-led Operation Rehydration serving children in Africa

In the developing world, contaminated water leads to a host of diseases that can quickly cause dehydration and even death, particularly in children. The good news is that such diseases are easily treatable — if those affected have the medicine.

Baylor sophomore Hannah Lee and a group of high school friends launched Operation Rehydration last summer in an effort to help defeat this problem. By December, the group had raised $5,000 — enough to donate 12,500 doses of oral rehydration salts that will be given to children in Lesotho, a small country in South Africa that has been particularly affected by such diseases.

Lee and her friends (who attend several different colleges) have partnered with the Baylor College of Medicine Bristol Myers Squibb Clinic in Maseru, Lesotho, to distribute the medicine. Here at Baylor, Lee and another Bear, Katie Whitmire, have helped spearhead fundraising appeals that included an appearance in Chapel (see video here) and a benefit concert at Common Grounds featuring Uproar Records artists. This spring, Lee and Whitmire’s sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma, will donate the proceeds from their annual Swingathon to Operation Rehydration, as well.

“Every year, over 2 million children die from this,” Lee says. “That’s one child every 14 seconds. The big goal of Operation Rehydration is to change the statistics. And as out of reach as that seems, Matthew 17:20 says ‘If you have faith as small as the mustard seed, say to this mountain move, and it will move from here to there. Nothing will be impossible for you.’ God is very good!”

Sic ’em, Operation Rehydration!