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. . .So we decided that I should go on my own; this would be a fact-finding mission for me as well as a well drilling mission.

I was really excited to learn that we would be drilling a well for a school. Living Water (the organization we went with), drills wells all over the world for communities, churches, schools, and all those in desperate need of clean water. But there just seems to be something special about providing water for a school. Several things happen when a school has good water. It’s customary for the women and children to be the ones to fetch the water every day. Many children have to miss school because they have to be the ones to get the water (especially young girls). When there is good clean water at the school, attendance goes up as children come with their pots to take water back home.

More children getting an education will have a huge impact on the community for generations.

Being at a school also gave our hygiene team a unique, and challenging, opportunity to teach many children some of the fundamentals of good health. The children learned how germs are spread, why it’s important to wash your hands after using the toilet and before eating, and how to protect your food and water from contamination.

Chronic illness is rampant because people simply do not have access to clean water. Around 85% of the worlds illnesses are related to unsafe drinking water. So many of the children we saw seemed so happy and healthy, but looks can be deceiving. One of the days we were there, a couple of the team members went across the street to talk to some of the people in the community. When asked if their children were sick, many parents would say no. But if asked if they had problems with diarrhea, they would say oh yes, the children have diarrhea every day. If every time you have a bowel movement, it’s diarrhea, that becomes normal to you, and many don’t even realize that this is a chronic illness. In some areas of Africa, they will not even name their children until they are 2 years old because the infant mortality rates are so high. The vast majority of the sicknesses killing their children are in their water. In El Salvador, we saw several hand-dug wells. These wells are probably only 20 feet deep, but they are also in close proximity to the hand-dug toilets. The contamination from their own waste flows right into the water they are drinking. Those who live near a river or stream suffer from the contamination of their neighbors up stream. Those who drink from water holes like this one next to the highway suffer from contamination from the road.

My family may not be able to solve the world’s water crisis, but we can absolutely have a profound impact. I choose to go because these children are loved by God just as much as my own children, and they have just as much of a right to clean water as my children do.

Filed under: El Salvador, Faith on May 25th, 2008