Urbana was one of 17 cities nationwide to receive a two-year, $115,000 grant to carry out projects involving health, sanitation and water issues in urban areas of Africa. The project was funded from a $7.5 million grant by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The grant was awarded by Sister Cities International, an organization built to create city-to-city relationships between U.S. communities and abroad.

“It’s a grant that he (Urbana Alderman Dennis Roberts) worked to get, and the point of it is for water and health improvement,” Urbana Mayor Laurel Prussing said. The cities were chosen by a panel of five experts in the fields of sister city relationships, aid administration and international development.

“The Urbana program and its partner in Zomba, Malawi, demonstrated the criteria necessary for long-term success in the project,” said Frances Reimers, communications and programs manager for the Africa Urban Poverty Alleviation Program.

“Their particular proposal was deemed by the independent panel to be feasible and would produce long-term results in the areas of water sanitation or health. We felt comfortable choosing them and providing them with this support to produce these projects.”

According to a press release from Sister Cities International, projects from Urbana may address municipal refuse collection, availability of public toilets, improving water lines and building safe water wells and sanitary sewer connections.

The African Urban Poverty Alleviation Program is a three-year-project that works with Sister Cities to help stop poverty in African cities through water, sanitation and health initiatives.

Roberts applied for the grant when he went on a mission trip to Zomba-Malawi in 2007. After ten days of working in rural areas, he decided to see if Urbana could help, he said.

“When I returned, I told everybody about it and they were pretty enthusiastic about supporting my idea,” Roberts explained.

Roberts said he saw first-hand how Malawi was the poorest country in Africa and was touched by the issue.

“This grant money can be used for projects relating to health, sanitation and water,” Roberts said. “Public health is the main concern in countries like this. It is something that is nearly nonexistent.”

Roberts spent most of spring 2008 working on getting a resolution approved for Malawi.

“I hoped that my dedication would pay off and this grant would be able to come through,” Roberts said. “I thought that maybe we would receive it, but now that we did, there is so much we can do.”