Every Gift Has a Story: Gifts of Water

Contaminated water carries bacteria and diseases and is a leading cause of death worldwide, especially among infants and young children. When used to grow crops, food supplies are negatively affected. When water is scarce, food supplies dwindle, leading to food insecurity, a significant issue for millions. In communities without easy access to clean water, it often falls to women and girls to travel back and forth to water sources, collecting water daily for household needs, affecting their ability to pursue education or employment. This, in turn, locks them into a cycle of poverty. Hygiene is fundamental to good health, but people living in slum conditions have little or no access to clean water for even the most basic needs, like bathing, washing clothes, and brushing their teeth. Clean drinking water is necessary to promote life, and millions of people suffer disease and even death for lack of it.

In addition to providing food to those in need, many of Oakseed’s ministry partners also encourage and promote gardening and the growing of crops to supplement diets and incomes. Some of Oakseed’s ministry partners collect and share clean water with their communities. Several of them provide safe places to bathe and wash clothing. As they use these opportunities to physically bless people in their communities, there is a greater openness to long-term relationships and discipleship, bringing opportunities to regularly share the love of God and transform lives for His glory.

In Ethiopia, HOH has spent the last 30 years caring for children who lost their parents to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. As these children grow up and graduate from the program, HOH has increased its support services for vulnerable children and adults in its community. It provides help enrolling children in local schools, after-school tutoring programs, meals, weekly Bible studies, counseling, and access to the ministry’s library. It also operates a medical clinic for impoverished families and an income-generation program where single mothers are trained and supplied with small-business loans to start their own businesses. HOH has been experiencing a shortage of clean drinking water and urgently needs to secure a reliable and sustainable water source for the children and community.

In Peru, MISIUR helps improve the quality of life for poor children and their families with after-school programs for children, Bible studies, counseling, and livelihood courses. MISIUR serves daily lunches to children and vulnerable people in the community, ranging in age from 2 to 88 years old, including the disabled and sick. Some of the produce and proteins served are harvested from MISIUR’s own gardens and egg farms, which also provide skills training for people in their communities. MISIUR has built prefabricated houses for several families, helping them escape unsafe living conditions and live in stable housing with heat in winter. Many families do not have access to electricity, making it especially difficult for children to study at night, and MISIUR has outfitted several of their houses with solar panels. These families also need access to reliable water sources, and MISIUR is seeking to provide water tanks to help with this need.

In the Dominican Republic, Emanuel House operates a water distribution center that provides clean water to the community while raising funds for the school. Reformed Heart Orphans Center in Kenya utilizes rainwater barrels to protect the land around them, provide water reserves for emergencies, and bless their neighbors by sharing water.