Dr. Tim Evans, D.D.S. and Humanitarian

The death of little Hilda, a 4-year-old child living in the remote villages of Peru, changed the focus of Dr. Tim Evans, an Oakley, Utah, dentist. (Dr. Evans currently serves as Vice-President on the Executive Committee of ASCEND, a Humanitarian Alliance.)

Dan Judd, a friend of Tim's, was serving as an LDS missionary in Bolivia when he became acquainted with Hilda's family. One day when Dan and his companion went to Hilda's village, they found out that she had died from drinking polluted water. When Dan related this story to Tim Evans, who had once served as a Mormon missionary in Hilda's village and was aware of the limited circumstances of their lives.

Tim and Dan became committed to provide a well with clean drinking water for Little Hilda's family. And so Evans did what many former missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints find themselves doing - he reconnected with his old mission area through humanitarian service.

Lack of safe drinking water plagues communities throughout the world, but Hilda's passing brought the crisis home to Evans in a very personal way.

"When you live away from home on a mission, usually for the first time in your life," Evans said, "these people you work with become your family, become a part of you, like your own brothers and sisters. You want to give back, to respond to the needs of the people because of their love and kindness to you."

Though Evans and his missionary companions frequently shared school supplies with the poorly stocked schools in their neighborhood during their full-time missionary service, Evans always felt he could do more.

Hilda's passing motivated the young dentist to return to Peru in 1983, 13 years after his original missionary work there. He and other returned missionaries helped develop an innovative hand-dug well and water-pump strategy that brought safe water to Hilda's community.Tim consequently established the Andean Children's Foundation to help bring clean water, greenhouses, and health education to hundreds of families living on the altiplano of Bolivia and Peru.


Evans and his associates continued their humanitarian outreach with additional water projects, schools and health and hygiene training. "We've taught basic technologies, building stoves and digging wells," he reported, "technologies that help to ease the burdens in that society, particularly the burdens on the women and on the children."

Responding to the visible needs of their associates becomes second nature to most full-time missionaries. In addition to their commitment to teach about the gospel of Jesus Christ, missionaries of the Church, wherever they reside, participate in weekly community service activities. Such service becomes a routine part of the 24-month assignment but also provides opportunities for missionaries to discover firsthand the challenging circumstances faced by many people in their mission neighborhoods.

Story from The Church of Jesus Christ - LDS Newsroom
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - 25 July 2007



25 years of humanitarian service continues to bring fresh water to people in Africa and South America.
Dr. Tim Evans, ASCEND Vice President and local Utah dentist headed up the successful expedition to Mozambique in July 2007.

25 years ago, Tim left on an expedition to Peru to help create water wells for the people. In three weeks time, he created 2 wells with pumps and planned for future work to be done. This year, with better technology developed by Tim over the past 25 years, more pumps were built and the people of Mozambique will enjoy fresh water for years to come.

The expedition participants on the July 2007 Mozambique Expedition created 7 wells and 6 pumps. Dr. Evans created a new rope pump that can be made from products easily found in any country. The pump is made up of a car tire and wheel, rebar, pipe (galvanized and PVC), rope and rubber washers.

When asked about his Mozambique experience, Tim describes how the excitement and amazement never changes, even after 25 years. "It is always an exciting thing when water starts flowing. It never changes; when the people see the first gush of water it is thrilling. Knowing that clean water is coming to change people's lives keeps me wanting to be involved in bringing pumps to the people who need it most."

Fresh Water Changes Lives
Story from the ASCEND Website: http://ascendalliance.org/article

Dr. Evans is a highly motivated social entrepreneur with extensive international program management experience. His specialty is 501 (c) (3) Organizational Development, Field Clinic Administration, and Sustainable Enterprise Mentoring. Dr. Evans has run a highly successful dental practice for 35 years and highly successful 501(c)(3) international charities and field programs for 25 years. He is a trainer, mentor and coordinator in micro-enterprise programs. He is an innovator, author, and institution builder as he builds organizations and programs with staying power. He is personable, result oriented and a problem solver.
Dr. Evans is married to Melissa Cannon and together they have five daughters and nine grandchildren. They live part-time on a ranch outside Oakley, Utah and part-time in downtown Salt Lake City.

Dr. Evans graduated from the University of the Pacific School of Dentistry in 1977. He studied Medical Biology and Spanish at the University of Utah. He also studied Medical Anthropology, and International Development Administration ACE Training with the Santa Cruz, Bolivia Model.

In 1977, Dr. Evans started the Mid-Town Medical-Dental Clinic and Progressive Dental Group. In 1998, he received the Distinguished Service Award from the Utah Dental Association and in 2002 he was inducted into the International College of Dentists. He organized remote dental and medical outreach clinics in Bolivia, Peru, Kenya, and Ethiopia starting in 1988. He has been a volunteer provider for Inner City Mission and Dental Clinic.


Dr. Evans has worked with several charitable organizations in Utah, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Besides currently serving as the Vice President of ASCEND Alliance, Dr. Evans is the Field Operations Manager for Cause of Hope. In 2001 he founded Engage Now Foundation with Carolyn Dailey and served as President until 2003. He also founded and served as President and Chairman of the Board for CHOICE Humanitarian, Andean Children's Foundation, and Chasqui Humanitarian. He was also a Vice President for Utah Bolivia Partners.

In the area of research and grant management, Dr. Evans is currently the manager of the Bolivia/Mozambique Sustainable Water Technology Transfer/Enterprise Initiative. This is a Self-Reliance grant Mr. Evans has been managing since 2006. In the early nineties, Mr. Evans was the Principle Investigator/Manager for The Thrasher Research Grant which provided Hand-Dug Wells/Hand-Driven Pumps for Self-Help Water Resource Management in Rural Andean Communities. In the mid-eighties, he was a Principle Investigator/Manager for the Bolivia Village Development Program, a multi-party grant received by the Andean Children's Foundation from Rotary International, Thrasher Research Fund, Utah/Bolivia Partners, and LDS Humanitarian Services. He was also a Director and Investigator for Project Sajama, a Self-Help Diarrhea Control Protocol in Poor Andean Communities in 1985.

Dr. Evans also served with his wife as a mission president for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Monterrey, Mexico from 2003-2006. He taught hundreds of missionaries how to serve the people in Mexico and teach them about salvation through Jesus Christ. President Evans taught the missionaries leadership principles, preparing the missionaries for future service after their missions. He also formed lasting friendships with those he served with.

Our success comes from the concept of "alliance" which is represented in our name: ASCEND, a Humanitarian Alliance.
Take this week to gain a glimpse of the power:

1. On Sunday, November 19, 2006, I punched a button on my computer which hurled a proposal into cyber space to World Bank's Global Development Marketplace headquarters. The central idea was an alliance-partnerships with local NGOs, ministries, and extension services.

2. On Friday Joel Madsen, Carolyn Dailey and I met with Building on Hope to explore an alliance in Africa. The alliance of Building on Hope was very gratifying. An old friend and former alliance colleague of mine from All One People shares a long-held dream of a "Benevolent Capitalism" where profitable businesses increase employment, recharge local economies, and support local outreach initiatives. An alliance with this initiative will take ASCEND to a new level of enterprise activity.

3. Within days of writing this article representatives from Water for Africa and the Self-Reliance Foundation will fly to Ethiopia and Mozambique with ASCEND's leadership. With a commitment to substantial contributions to ASCEND the alliances will work with synergism. Synergism is when two or more parties produce more together than if they were apart.

4. Benjamin Foundation and the James Foundation, long-term supporters of ASCEND, are also working toward an alliance in southern Mexico.

5. Over the past year, ASCEND has been cultivating and signing partner agreements for significant matching funds in Cuenca, Ecuador; Montero and Cotoca, Bolivia; Lima-Huaycan and Cusco, Peru; and Debrezet and Arsi Negeli, Ethiopia. These local government pacts create synergies which stretch resources, build institutional staying power, and bring visibility to ASCEND.

The mission, field and head-quarter strategies, personnel, and impressive donated home-base facilities, establish our organization as a progressive, well-managed agency which is accomplishing great good among some of the world's poorest people.

Thanks to all of you!
Tim Evans

Your contribution combined with matching funds, can provide clean water for a community. In the poorest developing communities, up to 50 percent of infants die needlessly from water-born infections. Community members work with ASCEND to construct wells, pumps, waterlines, filters, roof catchment, and/or storage tanks. Clean water saves lives!

To make a donation, visit ASCEND's website. Thank you for your help to make water available to those in need.

In ASCEND's first year, they experimented with two water projects, and neither of them worked. Over 26 years, ASCEND organizers have facilitated over 10,000 water projects, enabling access to clean water, saving lives and irrigating agricultural projects.

Thanks to Dr. Evans' innovation, ASCEND Alliance served 45,421 people in 2007 with simple technologies such as water pumps, latrines, and ovens and stoves. During the past decade, ASCEND has helped families and communities construct over 15,000 simple technologies. All beneficiaries have also been trained in construction and maintenance so they can sustain themselves after the help has been given.

Other Statistics from January 2007-June 2008:

182 household water systems and 12 community systems were built, including wells, pumps, filters and rainwater catchment

315 family agricultural projects and 5 community projects were enabled

498 household bathrooms and latrines were built

267 ovens and stoves were constructed


ASCEND organizers have facilitated meaningful overseas service for more than 6,000 North American volunteers. This is only a glimpse of some of the things they were able to help accomplish as they teamed up with ongoing operations made possible by generous sponsors and partners, in-country staff, interns, and thousands of in-country volunteers.

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