Wycliffe Bible translators USA will partner with the Lehigh Acres Kiwanis Club to collect used cell phones to support funding clean water initiatives to rural areas in Indonesia.

The campaign began on Aug. 2. The public can drop off their used cell phones at the Kiwanis Thrift Store at 15 Homestead Rd. S. The groups hope to receive as many as 1,000 phones by Sept. 30.

“Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation causes 80 percent of diseases and kills more people every year than all forms of violence including war.

Children are especially vulnerable, as their bodies aren’t strong enough to fight diarrhea and dysentery and other illnesses, said Henry Gomez of the Lehigh Acres Kiwanis Club.

Wycliffe US was founded in 1942 and Wycliffe Bible Translators exist to make the Bible accessible to all people in the language that is most meaningful to them, said spokesperson Ron Yaddaw.

It partners with more than 100 organizations around the world compromised of 6,000 translation consultants, linguists, aviators, humanitarian workers, educators and administrators.

The Kiwanis Club of Lehigh is one of the commnunity’s oldest civic organizations and serves the children of the world through community development, volunteerism and fundraising. Gomez said funds are raised through the donations to and by the customers’ patronage of the Kiwanis Thrift Store on Homestead Rd. South.