This school had a well that went dry in the dry season. The pump had been broken for two months. There were no toilets for the 1,250 students plus teachers. We repaired the well in March and installed a new Afridev hand pump. We also installed a lift pump which gives the ability to pump water to the water tank for the toilets. One woman told us that this pump “is the difference between life and death for us.”

This well should produce plenty of water to sustain the water needs of the community, school, and the toilets. Each toilet building has one room set aside for the teachers. The girls’ bathroom has 5 toilets and the boys’ bathroom has two urinals and three toilets. All bathrooms have sinks for the students and teachers to wash their hands with soap and water.

The hygiene training was completed in six days, with two days set aside for the teachers to practice teaching the lessons to their colleagues. They did an excellent job!

At the dedication ceremony for the new toilets, several of the classes performed dramas ranging from giving oral rehydration solution to flush the sickness from the body to how to properly use the toilets. When the students were first shown how to use the toilets, many of them stood up on the toilets and squatted. They acted this out and then explained how to properly use the toilets. When we travel down the road to rehabilitate a neighboring community’s well, the teachers and students from Kasongha Primary School will be the ones teaching the lessons on health and hygiene. The future of this country depends on this kind of sustainability.

The dirt that was dug up to make way for the new toilets was made into mud blocks by the students every Friday. With those blocks, they are going to build a library for their school.

The people of Kibande make their living growing bananas and sorghum. Their water comes from a nearby river that unfortunately makes the people sick. One farmer told us that his children suffer from diarrhea constantly. He said, “The sorghum grows well here. But my children cannot grow because they are sick. Some of the children die from sickness.”

Today, this farmer doesn’t have to worry that his children will die from the sickness they get from river water—because they don’t have to drink the river water anymore. “This new water will bring our community good health,” says Pilee Fideri, another member of the community. Now, the sorghum won’t be the only thing that will grow well in Kibande.

Excitement ran high at the Catholic church site where we changed out an old bush pump for a brand-new Afridev. This well has been serving the area around the clock for about three years now. Because of its location on the main road, travelers had become accustomed to getting water from this pump.

A man named Jacob told us how much people suffered after the old pump stopped working. “Having to rely on water catchment in the desert is very difficult. The pump was broken and the government water tank was also broken.” Now, with the new Afridev pump, clean water flows freely once again.

The priest at the church smiles and tells us that many people tell him the well is God’s gift to all who pass by. Indeed, a cup of clean water in Jesus’ name given freely at the site of a church stands in stark contrast to what is normally encountered on this lonely desert road.

Valerie: I’ve been on many mission trips before, but being a part of bringing something so vital to a community and seeing the transformation it brings blew my mind.

Words cannot describe the laughter and utter joy on the faces of the children in the community as they touched the clean water when it first poured out of the well. I came on this trip ready to be a part of transforming others’ lives, but little did I know that my life was the one that would be forever changed the second I saw the community’s reaction when the beautiful, clear water spilled out of the well. The entire community had been praying for water to come for 3 years—and the entire community all came together to help make it happen. Eight men put off work at their jobs for an entire week to help drill. They were a part of their own transformation.

Now that I have seen, I am responsible and I take that responsibility with the greatest joy. I will not rest—I will work along with Living Water International—until there are no more thirsty in the world.

Justin: This trip to Guatemala to drill a well was an amazing experience. It was not what I expected at all, but in a good way. It was really something else to experience the water crisis up close and personal.

I have spent the last 3 years talking about the water crisis and raising money for wells at my college. Because of that, I used to think that the most important thing was the well. Now I know that just as important—maybe even more important—are the relationships we build with the drill team, the in country staff, and the people of the community we serve.

I saw how much the people of the community sacrifice to get a well and how much they are willing to work to for a better life for their family and kids. They cooked meals for us, they watched over the drilling equipment at night, they built the cement base for the well, and they gave us all certificates to show their gratitude and desire for clean water. I may not remember the well that we drilled this week, but I will always remember the relationships and bonds we made with these amazing people.

When I go back to school and continue advocating and raising awareness about the global water crisis, I’m not going to be the same. I won’t just spout out statistics or logistics. This—the story of the thirsty—is now the new story I will tell.

Ithanga is in the interior of Thika district, about 50 kilometers from Thika Town (northeast of Nairobi). The area is very dry and remote. Ithanga happens to be isolated from the expansive Del Monte pineapple farm. Most people in Ithanga are subsistence farmers, though some are employed by the Del Monte or Kakuzi farms.

The health center in Ithanga attends to many patients daily. According to the nursing officer, HIV/AIDS is very prevalent in the area and their comprehensive care centre is always full. “We have depended on rain water catchments for hospital operations,” said Kingori Mishack, Ithanga Clinic’s head nurse. “This new borehole is good news to everyone!”

Our team was able to revisit the clinic a few weeks after we completed the well in order to reinforce some of the hygiene and evangelism teachings. The community is so happy with the new, clean drinking water; some told us that the water borne diseases were now “a gone case!”

In Ethiopia, communities like Meki-Wolda need sustainable solutions to the problems of water and sanitation. We work with the community leaders to organize a gathering at the well site in order to introduce basic concepts of hygiene and sanitation. The curriculum is based on the PHAST approach (Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation) designed to promote hygiene, sanitation improvements, and community management of water and sanitation facilities using specifically developed participatory techniques adapted for rural Ethiopia. Our goal is to work with local governments and community leaders so that the program will be sustainable in each village.

Hasime Kufa is a farmer in Meki-Wolda who understands the relationship between the new well and the concepts taught in the PHAST curriculum. “The new water source is great,” he says, “because it is protected from diseases. This will improve the health of our community.”

Brenda Mazariegos knew that the kids in her community were getting sick more than they should, but she wasn’t sure what was causing it. Yes, the water they drank and bathed in wasn’t clean, but that wasn’t the whole story. “The kids walk around with no shoes on. They also put things in their mouths and do not wash their hands. We see them put their fingers in their noses, and we did not realize that it is bad for them,” Brenda told us. A mission team traveled to Las Maduras to drill a new well for the community. The team also taught the women and children health and hygiene lessons about things like handwashing, germ transmission, brushing teeth, and keeping the area around the new pump clean.

“The hygiene lessons were good,” she said, “because many times, we knew that we should be doing something, but we did not know what to do.” She smiles down at the baby in her arms. “Now, we know.”

The summer has been unusually hot. Even the cows refuse to drink from the open area that holds the water because it is too rancid. When children come to collect water here, we tell them not to use it—we would have to bring them water from the Cuando river (17 kilometers away) to use until they can use the new pump. The kids told us that they usually got their drinking water from the river, but one of their school mates was taken by the crocodiles when she went there to fetch water—water that would have, in all likelihood, made her sick. Several kids told us they were sick in the stomach “most of the time,” and two brothers in the village recently died from diarrhea.

The children of Katope now have access to cool, clean water, even in the summer heat. What’s more—they don’t have to risk their lives just because they’re thirsty.

After a stormy night of rains and high winds, we headed west out of Dano to a remote village two hours away. On the way, we had to clear the road three times because of trees felled by the storm. As we reached Didro, the sun shone brilliantly above. Our destination? A primary school with a broken pump. For the last seven months, school children have carried dirty water from an open well one and a half kilometers away in order to have something to drink.

The Lord blessed us with a smooth repair. After removing the old pump, we soon were testing the water recharge rate with a submersible pump and, of course, having a little fun with water on a hot day! After installing the new materials clean, fresh water was flowing again much to the joy and amazement of the school director, the teachers, and the children.

Pierre Kombeogo is a teacher at the school in Didro. He watched the children suffer as they carried the water from the contaminated well—watched them suffer as they drank it. But he doesn’t have to watch them suffer anymore. “We are very happy today,” Pierre says. “We want to give big thanks, eternal thanks, along with all the students, to you and to Jesus Christ who has saved us today with this new pump. We are so very content that there are no words we can say.”

On a typical day in the dry season, Ange Nyirabukobwa takes her jerry cans to the nearest water source—this tapped spring. She opens the spigot all the way.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

“It is the dry season, so the water only comes in occasional drips,” she explains. “To get water, we have to go far off and get the dirty water from the river.”

The new well in Kayenzi is close and cool, clean water gushes out of the pump, even in the dry season. “Now we have clean water very close to us,” says Ange. “Thank you God and Living Water for this blessing!”