Field Trainer Program
Lifewater's Field Trainer Program
Apply to become a field trainer
Lifewater field trainers help train Lifewater's in-country partners in safe water, adequate sanitation, and hygiene education (WASH). Lifewater's partners then adapt what they learn to their local cultures and effectively implement life-changing WASH programs in local communities.
Who can become a Lifewater field trainer?
If you are an adult who wants to serve Jesus and empower others to meet their own basic water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) needs, you are a good candidate. Lifewater field trainers come from many different walks of life.
What are field training trips like?
Teams of three to four field trainers, often with a Lifewater staff member, travel to Africa, Asia, and Latin America for two to three weeks at a time to train. While field trainers raise their own support for the trip, assistance is often available.
How do I become a field trainer?
Learn more about the program, then apply to become a field trainer. If you are accepted into the program, you will take a course to learn about Christian tranformational development and then work with Lifewater staff toward a placement on your first trip. You will also select a training program (e.g., well drilling, hand pump repair, water treatment, latrine design and construction, community health through hygiene, WASH in schools) and receive stateside training in that area.
Thank you for considering becoming a Lifewater field trainer!
Field Trainers Give and Receive in Uganda
I had a group of fifth and sixth graders from a school here in Alabama who decided to support our trip. I taught them about WASH through a Lifewater program called Wash around the World. I was able to share what kids their age in Uganda had to deal with to get water. One girl in the class asked, “Why aren’t more people helping?” They started raising money for the Uganda project, and their school is not a school of wealthy kids.
We trained eleven pump repair technicians who are now able to do the repairs without us. In the process, we repaired five wells.
After the training, we held a graduation ceremony and gave the technicians course completion certificates. Local officials from their sub-counties attended the ceremony. The certificates are a big deal for the technicians, as they now have a marketable skill that they can use to help their people, who desperately need safe water.
A trip highlight was the attitude of the people toward education and knowledge. Knowledge is life to the Ugandans, and even the poorest families will do everything they can for their children to get the best possible education. Children there appreciate the importance of education and knowledge. They attend schools with classes of more than one hundred students to one teacher just to get the chance to take the tests that determine if they can advance to higher education. They often have to travel and stay at school away from their families for the whole term. Others are deprived of an education because their family needs them to work at home.
It was a joy to fix hand pumps at three different schools on our teaching field trips. The schools and surrounding communities once again have a water source that is clean and not so far away that it takes most of the day just to get water. I saw several contaminated water sources that the communities had been using ever since their pumps broke years ago. They were at least a kilometer away from the community.
This trip taught me that I can learn as much or more from our partners as I am teaching them. I found it so encouraging to see our partner’s staff in action with the villagers we were serving.
I was led time and time again to Philippians 2:1-8. This scripture ties service together with humility. It is all too easy for Americans to get puffed up when they are serving in a place like Uganda and begin to think they deserve special recognition, which our partners are often all too willing to give. This passage helped me to focus on what a true servant’s heart looks like and how it acts.
Love Does No Harm to it's Neighbor
Nancy Baker of San Luis Obispo, California, has been a volunteer Lifewater field trainer since 2003. On one training trip, she and three other field trainers facilitated a Community Health through Hygiene training course for Lifewater’s two Ethiopian partners. Here are her reflections on the trip:
"The Ethiopia training went well. After their week-long Lifewater course in hygiene, our partners had the opportunity to train members of a local rural community. Lessons were mostly taught in Amharic, many of the community members answered back in their local language, and we had an interpreter to whisper English in our ears so we would know what was going on. Even though we couldn’t speak to community members directly, it was fun to sit on the grass and just be together and laugh!
"The one person I will most remember is Birke, leader of a local women’s self-help group. Birke was striving to problem-solve and figure out ways they could put their knowledge into practice: How can we convince our husbands to wash hands? During harvest time when there are more than fifty people helping in the fields, how can we all wash hands before we eat?
"Another strong memory is a drama several community members performed. In the drama, neighbors are invited for lunch. They have the boldness to ask if the cook had washed her hands before preparing the food. When she says no, they refuse to eat. The hostess is very offended and becomes angry. The ensuing argument dramatizes the social risks Ethiopians face when they insist on changing cultural norms. Change isn’t easy and it doesn’t happen in a hurry!
"It was a privilege to watch our partners field difficult questions and skillfully deliver lessons to the community members. And it was an even greater thing to witness sharing of Biblical wisdom in an audience of mixed religious backgrounds. One partner read Romans 13:9-10: 'Love does no harm to its neighbor . . .' A Muslim coworker sitting next to him put his arm around his shoulder and expressed agreement with the scripture. Addressing the other Muslims in the circle, he said that, since there is only one God, we should lay aside our religious differences and all listen to this teaching from the Bible and work together to follow it. The group then discussed how handwashing is a way to show love to your neighbor by stopping the spread of disease.
"Before Lifewater’s training, two children from this rural community of six thousand people died of water-related illness in one month. With the training, sixteen community leaders are equipped to stem these deaths by teaching handwashing, and Lifewater’s partners are equipped to train many more communities in lifesaving hygiene practices. What a priceless opportunity to witness the power of God’s love at work and see God answer our prayers for good relationships and teambuilding."
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