Waters of Hope
Begin with 10 in 2014
Spotlight: Bolivia
After you finish your walk, you come into your kitchen and grab a glass of cold water….ahhh! That hits the spot!
Do you give much thought to water these days? What if clean water wasn’t accessible in your home or even your community? Have you ever known someone who died due to lack of clean water?
Maria Antonia is one of the many innocent children impacted by the world water crisis. She will grow up never knowing her birth mate. I met,Maria Antonia, and her twin sister, Maria Isabel, when I was working with the Salesian Lay Missioners in Bolivia. I noticed over subsequent trips people were constantly getting sick, in spite of the best efforts by healthcare missions. That is when I began to see the bigger issue.
What Happened to Maria Antonia?
Water is a basic human need. Even children, who eat daily, can become malnourished if their drinking water is not clean. When a water source has amoebas, bacteria, parasites and other microorganisms that can live in the intestines, then the water begins robbing the body of the essential nutrients. Constant exposure to a contaminated water source can weaken immune systems and quickly turn fatal. What happened to Maria Isabel: malnourishment, due to the deficiency and lack of our most basic human need, water.
You Can Be the Solution! Begin with 10!
Below meet some of the inspiring women from the Waters of Hope Begin with 10 campaign; 10 water systems, 10 women, 10 months. Follow Waters of Hope and hear each month about a different woman from a different community and how you can help purchase a clean water system or sanitation education for each woman and her community. You can change this! Yes you! It takes approximately $3000 to buy a clean water system for one community. Does that seem steep? Think of it this way, if you have 200 Facebook friends and they each gave $15, you could personally help a community have access to clean water. You just helped a whole community, a hospital, a school, or an orphanage gain access to one of life’s most basic needs. You just helped babies like Maria Isabel survive infancy.
Maria Eve
Teacher and President of the parents association at the Collegio Evangelico de Metodista in Okinawa, Bolivia.
Zolma
A doctor and mother seeking clean water facilities for the hospital she works at outside of Monterro, Bolivia
Nievus
College Educated stay-home-mom from Tres De Mils, an impoverished area located in the outer rings of the city of Santa Cruz, Bolivia. By the time the city water gets to the outer rings, it has become contaminated.
The Effects of Clean Water in Bolivia