Help End One Community's Clean Water Crisis Today!

The Clean Water Crisis

Clean water is foundational to life—it impacts everything from education to income to health. But one in four people around the world don’t have access to clean water and 46% of people worldwide lack adequate sanitation facilities.1

What does the water crisis look like?

• Children are dying from preventable diseases. Unsafe water, sanitation, and hygiene lead to the death of approximately 1,000 children under the age of 5 every day.2

• The burden to collect water disproportionately falls on women and children in eight out of 10 households,2 with negative implications for safety, school attendance, and economic opportunity.

THE TRAGEDY is that this crisis does NOT need to exist. It is totally preventable and fixable.

THE MIRACLE is that YOU can help end this crisis for one community TODAY!

With the power of just one gift, you can help change everything for a community in need. The average cost to bring clean water and safe sanitation practices to a community is $160 per person, which is approximately $50,000 per project.

Your gift of $5,000 can help a family access clean water

Your gift of $2,700 can help build safe sanitation facilities

Your gift of $1,200 can help provide critical WASH training

When you partner with Operation Blessing to build community water systems and sanitation facilities, you are holistically transforming life for families in need with:

HEALTH

Access to clean water and safe sanitation practices are key to building a healthy life! Families can drink water that is not contaminated by animal waste and have adequate bathrooms and sinks for washing hands.

EDUCATION

Being able to collect clean water from a nearby source instead of trekking an hour or two every day allows kids time to stay in school and study. Preventing disease also helps keep kids healthy enough to attend school.

INCOME & AGRICULTURE

During the dry season, it can be extremely difficult to find water in some rural communities. Having a consistent source of water makes it possible for families to grow produce and care for their livestock, which means more consistent income.

STABILITY

All of this is foundational to creating a more stable environment and giving families the tools they need to build a better future.

A Mother’s Prayer FOR WATER

For Abygail in Guatemala, clean water changed her life.

She lives with her two little sons in a small, rural community in Guatemala. There is an irrigation pipe at a banana plantation near their village where they can get water, but it is untreated and not safe for drinking.

Abygail buys jugs of water when she can, but that costs $30 a month, which is about 20 percent of what she makes cleaning houses. Sometimes she doesn’t have enough work and can’t afford to buy safe water.

“When there is no money, I have to go to the stream to get water,” she says. Or they will get it from the irrigation pipe, but that water is also contaminated and comes out rust-colored and dirty.

“The water is yellow and smells bad. It tastes like rust and when I drink that water my stomach hurts,” her son Allen explains.

Like many parents around the world, Abygail is routinely forced to give her children contaminated water. She has no other option. And, as for so many children, this dirty water makes her sons sick.

Abygail had to take her boys to the health clinic after drinking the unsafe water made them particularly sick.

“They told me my sons' stomachs had been damaged by the dirty water. They asked me why I’d

Like many parents around the world, Abygail is routinely forced to give her children contaminated water. She has no other option.

given it to them and I told them it was out of necessity,” she says. This is the heartbreaking reality for many parents and grandparents across the globe.

When compassionate partners like you heard about the need, they stepped up to build a well in Abygail’s community. Our team worked with local leaders and on-the-ground experts to dig a 140-foot well, build an elevated tank to hold 4,000 gallons of water, install a purification system, and build a network of pipes that brings safe, clean water to each home in the village.

For Abygail, access to clean water brought peace and new freedom. Instead of spending money on doctors’ visits and bottled water, she can invest what she earns back into her family and provide for her children.

“Thank you for giving me clean water!”

—ALLEN, age 4

“We can now use that money to buy more food. And the kids can drink clean water anytime without getting sick,” she said.

Since her boys can drink clean water and wash their hands, they’ll be able to grow up healthier and have the opportunity to attend school. Health and education are intrinsically connected to clean water and are key to breaking the cycle of poverty.

Will YOU end the water crisis for a family like Abygail’s?

Your generosity today can change their entire future.

IMPACT UPDATE

How You Changed Lives Last Year

36,000 people now have access to clean water and improved sanitation

WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) trainings were held in 14 countries

155 clean water projects were completed in 11 countries around the globe

In honor of World Water Day this month, will you help us raise $50,000 to bring clean water to a community in critical need? Your partnership will help bring clean water to families in desperate need like Abygail’s.

Your gift of $5,000 can help a family like Abygail’s get access to clean water

Your gift of $2,700 can help bring safe sanitation facilities to a family in need

Your gift of $1,200 can help provide WASH training for a community in need