GIVING CODE: ACM1826

REGION: Africa

THE NEED: $80,000.00

Water, sanitation, and hygiene. Each is essential to a healthy life, yet for millions of people in African communities, these things can’t be taken for granted.

More than half of people living in rural areas in Liberia and Sierra Leone have no access to safe water, and as many as 80 percent have no access to a decent toilet. As a result, thousands of people die each year from water-related illness. In other areas, the task of collecting water often falls to women and girls, who are put at risk when they miss school and exposed to violence on long walks to and from water sources.

Nazarene churches in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Mozambique, and other countries across Africa have decided to do something about the problem. They're working with communities to create change through WASH projects that combine water, sanitation, and hygiene.

WASH projects provide clean water through wells as well as safe hygiene practices, lowering the risk of illness and disease. Clean water supplies vary and include wells and boreholes, rainwater collection, capping of springs, and treatment of existing water sources. Through comprehensive assessments, each community receives the type of water supply that best fits its needs.

That means that when you support WASH projects, you can become part of lasting solutions.

Water is essential to basic living, hygiene, food security, and health. When combined with good sanitation and hygiene practices, access to water can transform communities in Africa. The combination of water and hygiene provides essential drinking water, helps prevent sickness, and is the basis for successful farming and food security.

By investing in WASH programs in Africa, you are helping make a healthy life possible. Often, WASH programs are implemented in partnership with child development centers and other community health programs. In addition, community members receive training so they can both spread good hygiene practices to their community and maintain new water sources.

WITH YOUR HELP, vital wells can be drilled, latrines can be built, and communities can learn healthy hygiene habits.

WITH YOUR HELP, lives can be saved.

WILL YOU PARTNER with local congregations all over Africa to offer a cup of cold water — and more — in Jesus' name?