The room was dark and still as she quietly gathered her things. Janet looked back over her shoulder at her sleeping family and ventured out under the inky black African sky. She had to get moving. The journey to collect water from the distant river where cattle, pigs, and wild animals also drank took over 90 minutes. Janet wanted to be one of the first women in line to avoid a long wait and the hot, rising sun. As she slowly carried the sloshing water jugs miles back home to Mgombela Village, her forehead creased with worry for the health of her infant daughter and husband. The river was contaminated and villagers would often get ill from the water.  

Wake, rise, walk, collect, carry. 

Like so many women, this was Janet’s routine for collecting water for her family–sometimes repeating it more than once a day. Until Cross International partner Kachere Development Programme (KDP) in Zambia announced that a new water system was to be installed in her community. 

Janet, an enthusiastic and grateful young mother, rejoiced at the news and volunteered to be a member of the leadership team. Janet joined the Village WASH committee (V-WASHE).  The committee is responsible for training the community about the importance of clean water, well maintenance, handwashing and the use of soap, and correct water storage.  

Families that use the well pay a low monthly fee for the monitoring and maintenance service that the V-WASHE committee provides.  For example, if there is a break in the borehole and pump, the collected funds will be used to make the repair.  The water system serves more than 500 people.

Clean water is life
Without clean water, Janet, and mothers like her, would still be waking before the sun to walk long distances, share water with animals, and put their family at potential risk for illnesses and diseases. Contaminated water can make children miss school and mothers unable to take care of their children.

Now the women in Janet’s village have more time, literally hours each day, to manage small businesses to help put food on the table at home. They benefit from knowing they have value and are contributing to the care of the family.  For young girls, a clean water source can mean spending as much as 25% more time in school, where education empowers a better, hope-filled future.

Clean water is life, and so many communities around the world still need its life-giving flow. With your help, Cross International is able to bring clean water to literally thousands of women like Janet and their families annually.

Imagine you wake up, shuffle into the bathroom, turn the handle in the shower, and then … nothing. No water comes from the faucet. What do you do? 

You call the plumber. 

Now, imagine you live in a small village in Africa. You wake up and walk an hour to the well that holds the only clean water source for miles. You fill your vessel and slowly carry it back home. Then you turn around and walk the same path back to the well. You do this morning after morning, all for enough safe water to last the day. 

Most of us don’t worry about whether the water we use is clean or safe. For many in the developing world, finding a life-giving water source is a real challenge … with life-and-death consequences.

Cross International believes that water is life. We know that not only is a clean water source essential, but so is education around proper hygiene, sanitation practices, and equipment so the water remains clean from source to stomachs. 

We are committed to working with our local ministry partners to do the hard work needed to solve these problems. One hundred percent of our clean water programs incorporate WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) training to make sure local people know how to handle clean water appropriately. We also develop local leadership’s commitment to the ongoing monitoring and upkeep of the project’s work.

In the Eastern Province of Zambia, Africa, Cross International and Kachere Development Programme (KDP) partnered to provide a bore hole for access to clean water in the village. To avoid the underlying issues of illness that stem from contaminated water, we also established the Village WASH (VWASH) program to train local leaders on health and hygiene. Leaders take what they learn and bring ownership and knowledge of best practices to their community so clean water remains sustainable. 

The training covers:

• The importance of keeping the borehole surroundings clean
• Diseases caused by drinking dirty water
• The value of good hygiene and sanitation
• Basic maintenance of the borehole
• Income-generating business ideas related to the sustainability of the borehole maintenance
• Roles of the WASH committee members
• Biblical principles of the Water for Life Project

With our partner, KDP, we continue to identify remote villages that have no clean water options other than an open pit or river often contaminated and shared with animals. We rely on local information when deciding to invest into a new community well, and self-help groups formed by women in the rural villages help select well and borehole locations. More villages are reached, more villages and lives are served.

In Zambia, our partnership with KDP has impacted 22,200 households with access to clean, safe and sufficient drinking water. We equipped 780 VWASH committee members with knowledge on health, water and sanitation. Through increased media visibility of the program, 62,000 people have received health education information through community awareness meetings and radio programmes in five chiefdoms of Chipata Kasenengwa and Chipangali District of Eastern Province. Without the task of fetching water for hours a day, thousands of mothers have time for activities that could help their households survive and children can remain in school.     

Where water flows, so does opportunity. For so many vulnerable families around the world, getting clean water isn’t as easy as turning on the faucet. With ongoing support from our generous donors, we can help our local ministry partners transform lives from deepest need into thriving joy with clean, life-giving water.