When The Reality Hits You
December 26, 2013
Kevin assessed this water source in 2010 after the Haiti Earthquake.
Accompanied by two of our Haitian staff, we visited homes, met community leaders, captured photos, and gathered water samples over the course of the morning. Their primary water source was a drainage ditch littered with trash. The lack of sanitary facilities meant that most residents squatted among the banana plants. Anytime it rained, everything would flow into this ditch. In different places, there were children playing in it, mothers washing dishes, and a horse getting a drink.
As we were wrapping up the assessment, I saw a boy, maybe three years old, nearly naked, reaching down to get a drink of water. The reality of the situation struck me. I remembered the statistic that I had predicated hundreds of times in e-mails, phone calls with donors, and presentations to church groups.
One child, under the age of five, dies every twenty-one seconds from water related illness.
One child dies every 21 seconds from water related illness.
This could be that child.
If we don’t respond, if we can’t find the funding, if this community doesn’t receive safe water, this child could become part of that statistic. Our work matters, it is urgent, and it can change a child’s future.
You can help change the statistic. Water Missions International is partnering with Sevenly to bring safe water to a village in Haiti. You can take part in their campaign, and even enter to win a trip to see a Water Missions International project in Haiti so that you too can come to understand firsthand the impact of safe water on millions of people around the world.
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