Sister Cities International is giving 17 American cities — including Milwaukee, Chicago and St. Louis — the opportunity to help their less fortunate African sister cities thousands of miles away.
Milwaukee will receive a $115,000 grant from SCI to assist its South African sister city uMhlathuze as part of the organization’s Africa Urban Poverty Alleviation Program. The announcement was made at a press conference Friday at City Hall in conjunction with Freedom Day in South Africa, which is today.
The money, which was provided to SSI by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, will go toward increasing the availability of clean drinking water in uMhlathuze, said Alderman Joe Davis, who chairs Milwaukee’s Sister Cities Committee.
“As someone who has traveled to Africa many times I can tell you that clean water … is not something people in Africa have easy access to,” Davis said in a press release.
Pearl Nomvume Magaqa, South Africa’s Consul General to the Midwest, said she is excited about Milwaukee’s commitment to developing African urban centers and eliminating poverty in her country. The grant money will help the involved South African cities accelerate service delivery and promote social justice, she said. More specifically, it will pay for travel to Africa for city officials who will train their South African counterparts in water sanitation and reclamation, according to a city press release.
“(Officials in uMhlathuze) view this as an opportunity to enhance the overall quality of life for their citizens,” she said.
Milwaukee’s reputation with freshwater research and the city’s dedication to activism in South Africa made the city an easy choice for the grant, said Jim Doumas, executive vice president of SSI.
Mayor Tom Barrett said Milwaukee’s greatest asset is its access to Lake Michigan, giving the city an expertise on water sanitation and reclamation that it can share with its South African sister city.
He said the grant is just the latest in a series of the city’s efforts to internationalize. He cited attracting Spanish manufacturer Talgo to the North Side and recent outreach efforts to China.
