Stories From the Field
Water For Life – Kenyan Children Scared of Clean Water
Feb
The opportunity to be involved with the Water For Life project offers weekly and sometimes daily miracle stories we at times would never believe if we had not experienced them ourselves. At times you think you have heard them all.
We have seen clean water filtered from streams shared with animals; we have seen clean water filtered for villagers floating over bodies of water where human waste is deposited on a daily basis; we have seen dirty water cause families to give up loved ones in exchange for money to pay for medical bills to cure one of their own from a water borne disease and if they would have only had clean water – who knows what might have not happened.
The horrifying stories are frequent; stories of hope are common.
On February 13th, guest author, Barbara Luke of TrueAfrica, told a beautiful story about the thankfulness of a man in Uganda who had received filters from Barbara’s first visit. His humble story is felt:
One man brought his baby over to show me how healthy she was because of the clean water. He had lost two other children from contaminated water and he thanked us continually for over an hour for such a miracle that had come to their small corner of the world.
What a powerful and motivating experience. All of us at the Be Water For Life project thrive on these stories. They give us extra life and energy. That was true when we read Barbara’s story last week and it is true of the story we have to tell this week.
Our common hope story of hope takes place in a small village of Kenya that serves 500 adults and 300 children. Here in this village, conditions are all too familiar. The pictures and comments from one of the community leaders, Rusia Nyanchama, give you the perspective needed to understand the gravity of the situation.
Dear brother Rudy and all supporters of Water For Life:
We are much grateful as the community and church family for getting us the water filter with packets. It is wonderful for getting clean water for the first time. Previous we used to take dirt water passes a stream. The water is full of impurity including human waste. We had often outbreak of water borne diseases. We thank God for having you considering our impoverishing situation.
The following are pictures explaining how the situation is – This is a stream where we get the water and as you can see the water is brown:
Here is Pastor Erick adding the filter and we also put the water into the filtering bucket. Children here are waiting to see something I may call a miracle maybe. Because they have never seen the clean water.
Wow! Clean water is here. Children were confused with the new color!!! It is wonderful clean water coming out. They WORRIED and scared by the color of water changing!
Drinking clean water for the first time. It is hard to believe!
Many are now here waiting to clean water.
Thanks to all supporters of Water for life for having us fresh water in our village. We are much grateful to receive these water filters. May God again open his hand to help even my friend in the near village to start getting clean water.
Can you imagine the feeling of seeing clean water for the first time in you life and without knowing it partake of water that will not make you sick? These are the common stories we hear the more filters we put into the field. Clean water is a basic human necessity. It is our goal to have clean water available to everyone and in that process we hope no child will ever be afraid of pure, clean water.
