The other day I made a post about fine bottled waters of the world.  One person commented by posting a link to an image of an African boy getting water from a well, which reminded me of a program my church is supporting.
Decades of war, poor land management and the current drought have left the people of Sudan facing a desperate water shortage. Over 42 percent of the population has no access to safe water, and only 36 percent have a toilet. According to the UN, waterborne diseases kill four children worldwide per minute (one child every 15 seconds). According to USAID, one in every four children born in Southern Sudan dies before the age of five. Half of those deaths are from water-related illnesses.
In March 2006, a week-long consultation of Sudanese pastors determined that their major health priority should be to provide clean water to the people of Sudan. It is the mission of Water is Basic to come alongside these Sudanese leaders and provide them with the equipment needed to drill wells.
The vision of Water is Basic is to see a well drilled in every village in Sudan. Funds raised will purchase the necessary equipment to drill water wells–drilling rigs, piping, trucks to carry the equipment and Sudanese workers. Sudanese nationals will be trained to drill, operate and repair their own water wells, empowering them to impact and sustain their communities.
The church will be sponsoring a 5K in the somewhat near future (September?) in order to raise funds for Water is Basic. I’ve never run a 5K, so I don’t think I’ll run, but I plan on helping out at this event. If you live in the Dallas – Fort Worth area and like to run, maybe this would be something you would like to be a part of (perhaps a former Wise County DA?). I’ll make sure to keep you updated. And thanks to the commentor for posting that picture, we all needed a reminder about how good we have things over here. It’s crazy how one can forget how we can get the most basic things at a moments notice, while others are denied such a privilege.
Keith,
The Basic 5K is on October 13th. We’ll have registration available online in about three weeks. If you want to run, please continue to check the Water is Basic web site in a few weeks. We should have more info at that time.
Thanks for posting this, buddy! I have Erika draft an email to tell you how much of an awesome guy you are!!
“And we kneel in a big church as we pray to a Big God!”
– Big Time by Peter Gabriel
I Love the idea of giving people water bottles and having them return them full of change. If people just put whatever change was in their purse/pockets at the end of the day a large amount could be saved in very little time.