Aaron Lemma

Finding Power and Purpose in Water

Aaron Lemma, BS ’20, is channeling the principles he learned on the track into a career bringing clean water to Kenyan communities.

For most athletes, running is a punishment, Aaron Lemma, BS ’20, says. Make a mistake or show up late and you’ll soon be running it off as a reminder to do better next time.

For Lemma, though, running was a path toward growth. When he walked onto the Saint Joseph’s track and field team in his first year of college, supported by Mike Glavin, BS ’78, the program’s director, he found a catalyst that has propelled him forward in life.

Lemma yearned to emulate the discipline he saw in Glavin and the team’s leaders. “The numbers on the stopwatch don’t lie,” he says, and that meant he could always seek improvement and reflect on the work required to achieve it.

“Track gave me a chance to really direct my spirit at something,” Lemma says. “It gave me a chance to direct my innermost drive to be great at something.”

Today, he has channeled that energy toward a powerful purpose, working as outreach and operations manager at Water is Life Kenya (WILK), a Delaware-based nonprofit that works with the Maasai people of southern Kenya to install water, sanitation and hygiene projects that help communities overcome some of the basic obstacles standing in the way of well-being. 

Lemma leads fundraising efforts that help establish deep borehole wells that are then managed and maintained by communities in Kenya, where the organization has helped establish access to clean water for over 80,000 people since it started 16 years ago. For communities that rely on livestock and live in semi-arid, rural conditions, WILK’s support can be life-changing.

“These are human beings,” Lemma says. “They were born in a situation they can’t control and they are working really hard to survive.”

For Lemma, the journey to this point hasn’t been linear. He graduated from St. Joe’s with a degree in interdisciplinary health services and was considering pursuing a career in holistic medicine when he took up an invitation from Daniel R.J. Joyce, S.J., BA ’88, vice president of mission and ministry. 

Fr. Joyce encouraged him to apply for the University’s Alliance for Catholic Education program (ACESJU), a fellowship program that connects recent graduates pursuing a master’s degree with local under-resourced Catholic schools and nonprofits to serve as teachers or administrators. For two years after graduation he taught math and science at South Philadelphia’s Saints John Neumann and Maria Goretti High School and lived with other ACESJU fellows in an old convent near the school. 

“The fellowship allowed Lemma to become a leader and mentor to high school students while deepening his commitment to ecological issues and reversing climate change,” Fr. Joyce says.

Seeking to connect with his biology students over Zoom in the midst of the pandemic, he began showing nature documentaries to expose them to the beauty all around them. In the process, he fell in love with the natural world himself and realized he needed to do something to help protect it.

“I felt a call,” Lemma says. “I wanted to work on the frontlines of the climate crisis.”

When Lemma told Fr. Joyce about his desire, Fr. Joyce shared with him a job posting at an organization that seemed like a perfect fit: Water is Life Kenya. A year-and-a-half later, Lemma says his work has given him a newfound sense of purpose. In February 2023, he spent three weeks in Kenya in the midst of a three-year drought, supporting the drilling of a new borehole. In the process, he saw with his own eyes the meaning of the organization’s mission. 

“Something as simple as having water nearby can bring hope to people,” Lemma says. “It’s hard to put into words how much that can change you.”

He returned more committed than ever before. For World Water Day, on March 22, he’s organizing a dress-down day at schools in the region, aiming to raise a portion of the $80,000 needed to fund WILK’s next community borehole by creating a movement of solidarity among students, families and teachers. It’s just the next step in his long-term goal to serve others as best he can.

“His work in an equitable local partnership between drought-stricken Kenya and our region makes him a global agent for change in the best possible way,” Fr. Joyce says.

Connect with Aaron Lemma.