{"id":9787,"date":"2018-06-03T21:20:40","date_gmt":"2018-06-04T03:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nigerianews.ca\/?post_type=news&#038;p=9787"},"modified":"2018-06-03T21:20:40","modified_gmt":"2018-06-04T03:20:40","slug":"solar-powered-irrigation-systems-in-south-sudan","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"http:\/\/nigerianews.ca\/news\/solar-powered-irrigation-systems-in-south-sudan\/","title":{"rendered":"Students turn rainmaker; to build solar-powered irrigation systems in South Sudan"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"small-12 inset columns center\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div>\n<header class=\"article__header article__header_no_subheadline\">\n<p class=\" article__headline\"><em><strong>Photo:\u00a0U of T student and Rainmaker Enterprise founder James Madhier (right) and Anna Jiang, a civil engineer, want to build solar-powered irrigation systems starting in Madhier\u2019s hometown in South Sudan. Rainmaker aims to combat food insecurity caused by droughts.<span class=\"image__credit\">\u00a0\u00a0(<span class=\"image__credit__source\">SUPPLIED<\/span>)<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\" article__headline\"><em><strong>\u2018I can\u2019t just turn my back\u2019: U of T student and former refugee to bring water crisis solutions to areas in need<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Rainmaker aims to combat food insecurity caused by droughts.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>University of Toronto student James Madhier was doing research on a barren farm in Ghana in May 2016, when the landowner, a young mother, approached him with her small child in tow.<\/p>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"small-12 inset columns\">\n<div class=\"article__body clearfix article-story-body\">\n<p class=\"trackContent-0\">\n<p>Madhier, there to study solar-powered farming, expected the woman might simply introduce herself to the researchers, or ask about sustainable water solutions they were exploring that could help her farm \u2014 a cocoa farm intercropped with plantain, which had been decimated by a drought.<\/p>\n<p class=\"hero blur_effect\">\n<p class=\"trackContent-3 blur_effect hideRegistration\">\n<p>\u201cWe were really shocked,\u201d said Madhier, 29. It was the best thing she could think to do to help her child, he said, a sentiment he sympathized with.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI left thinking it was not long ago that I was in a similar situation, helpless in South Sudan during the war, and now here I am. I\u2019m coming back from a developed world, Toronto, as a researcher. I can\u2019t just turn my back.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"trackContent-5 blur_effect hideRegistration\">\n<p>On the plane back to Toronto, Madhier drew up a plan for what would become <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rainmakerenterprise.org\/\">Rainmaker Enterprise<\/a> \u2014 a non-profit development organization that aims to bring solar-powered irrigation infrastructure to Africa to combat food insecurity caused by droughts. He founded it in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>Rainmaker Enterprise will host its first annual <a href=\"https:\/\/www.waterforpeace.ca\/\">Water for Peace Cocktail Reception<\/a> on Saturday, featuring keynote remarks by Rom\u00e9o Dallaire, founder of the Rom\u00e9o Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, which aims to end the recruitment and use of child soldiers, and South Sudanese-Canadian award-winning musician and former child soldier Emmanuel Jal. The gala will raise funds for Rainmaker\u2019s upcoming pilot project in South Sudan.<\/p>\n<p>The initiative comes just five years after Madhier was selected as one of 129 student refugees given the opportunity to come to Canada for post-secondary education through the World University Service of Canada\u2019s (WUSC) Student Refugee Program.<\/p>\n<p>Madhier grew up under the abiding threat of bombings, militia groups, and famine as generations of civil war ravaged on in South Sudan. He eventually fled the country at 15, finding his way to a Kenyan refugee camp and, through WUSC, went on to attend the University of Toronto, where he is completing peace, conflict and justice studies at the Munk School of Global Affairs.<\/p>\n<p>thestar.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo:\u00a0U of T student and Rainmaker Enterprise founder James Madhier (right) and Anna Jiang, a civil engineer, want to build solar-powered irrigation systems starting in Madhier\u2019s hometown in South Sudan. Rainmaker aims to combat food insecurity caused by droughts.\u00a0\u00a0(SUPPLIED) \u2018I can\u2019t just turn my back\u2019: U of T student and former refugee to bring water [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9788,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"news-category":[320,323,322],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Students turn rainmaker; to build solar-powered irrigation systems in South Sudan<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/nigerianews.ca\/news\/solar-powered-irrigation-systems-in-south-sudan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Students turn rainmaker; to build solar-powered irrigation systems in South Sudan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Photo:\u00a0U of T student and Rainmaker Enterprise founder James Madhier (right) and Anna Jiang, a civil engineer, want to build solar-powered irrigation systems starting in Madhier\u2019s hometown in South Sudan. 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