End Waterborne Illnesses for Young Children

Help Serve 230 People

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“I hope that the scarcity and deep rooted problem of water is once and for all solved.” - Shito

Ethiopia

GPS: 9.1450, 40.4897
  • Story
  • Ethiopia
  • FAQ's

Your gift will provide clean water and improved health to families in Ethiopia.

 

Shito’s Life in Bensa, Ethiopia

April 2021

 

Diarrheal disease is a leading cause of death for children under the age of five. In Bensa, Ethiopia, Lifewater’s surveyed families and found that 17% of children under the age of five had suffered from the illness the week prior.

That’s a high number, and it inevitably means many children are being lost to illness in Bensa.

Shito, a mother of four young children, lives in Bensa in a village called West Ta”a. To get water each day, Shito or her children walk for 30 minutes to reach a natural spring. Shito said the water is red and animals drink from it.

They try to go early in the morning while the water is still settled and not as murky. Despite her efforts, Shito’s children still get dangerously sick from the water. She and her husband, Kirba, have brought the children to the health center many times for treatment.

“I hope that the scarcity and deep rooted problem of water is once and for all solved in our village,” she said.

Shito loves her children. She spends her entire day working to keep them fed, warm, and educated.

“My dream is to see all my children become doctors,” Shito said. “I wish for them to have bright futures and prosperous lives.”

With safe water and healthy children, Shito hopes to continue her own education.

“I want to continue my education from grade eight where I stopped during my marriage,” she said.

When you give safe water, you serve mothers just like Shito in Bensa, Ethiopia. Your gifts send health experts and water technicians to remote villages in need, ending long walks for contaminated water and bringing hope to communities in need.

 

About Ethiopia

 

115 million people live in Ethiopia. A third of them are drinking contaminated water. It is estimated that 7.5% of the global water crisis is in Ethiopia alone. 

This water crisis has consequences for everything from child mortality rates to agricultural outputs.

The majority of families Lifewater serves in Ethiopia rely on agriculture for their annual income.  In these rural areas, women and children may walk more than three hours a day to gather water from rivers or ponds animals also use. 

Children miss days and weeks of school every year and mothers lose time they could have spent cooking or tending to their fields, all for contaminated water that makes them sick.

These water challenges create sanitation obstacles as well. Almost 1 in 4 people in Ethiopia do not have access to a toilet, so they go out in the open. This is a major public health crisis.

The good news is, this is entirely preventable. Lifewater’s work shows that waterborne illness can be nearly eliminated with basic access to things like clean drinking water, proper sanitation, and washing hands with soap.

Give safe water to Ethiopia today.

Am I sponsoring a specific village?

Your gift will help provide safe drinking water and improved sanitation and hygiene for the entire Nensebo program rather than one specific village, making it possible for Lifewater to reach this family as well as their neighbors.

Will I receive updates?

Yes! You can expect regular updates on progress in the Nensebo region. And, when the communities in the region are transformed with safe water, you’ll receive a story and photos from a family whose life is changed because of your gift.

Can I visit programs and/or my sponsored water project?

Lifewater has local staff that live and serve among the communities and schools where Lifewater works. Our staff know the language and the culture and are best equipped to serve communities. Because we seek to ensure sustainable water projects and community buy in, we do not allow donors to visit the projects they sponsor. However, we do commit to sending real-time updates, photos, and stories from the projects themselves.

Where does Lifewater work?

With more than 40 years’ experience, LIfewater is the longest-running Christian clean water charity in North America. Over those 40 years, Lifewater has worked in more than 45 different countries. Currently, our work is focused in Sub-Saharan Africa (Ethiopia, Uganda, and Tanzania) and Southeast Asia (Cambodia).

Why these countries and regions?

Lifewater identifies countries and regions that are unreached and underserved with basic water access and sanitation, which means we focus on areas where other organizations are not serving.

Although great strides have been made in the past 20 years to solve the global water crisis, remote and rural populations still remain unreached with adequate water and sanitation. These distant regions are difficult and often costly for governments and NGOs to serve well. Many of these communities feel as though they have been forgotten.

Can I request a water project in a specific country?

Currently, Lifewater has programs in Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, and Cambodia. You can go to lifewater.org/projects to select a specific water project to help. Because our programs are regionalized and made in partnership with the local governments, we are not able to take requests for specific water projects outside of our existing programs.

What percent of funds go towards programs?

Lifewater budgets 80% of expenditures for programs. The remaining 20% is split between administrative/management and fundraising expenses. This ratio is best in class for nonprofits and is why Lifewater has received the highest rating from Charity Navigator.

Administrative/management expenses are used to ensure that we are effective in managing the funds entrusted to us and include the following types of expenses: accounting personnel, leadership time, professional development of staff, external auditors, legal counsel, government registration expenses in every U.S. state, credit card fees for processing donations, bank fees, database maintenance, and office expenses.

Fundraising expenses generate the income needed to do the work that we set out to do. These include the cost of direct mail appeals and communication, marketing projects, donor relations personnel, and email communication systems. Last year, every dollar invested into Lifewater fundraising efforts resulted in $10 of donation for the organization.

Is Lifewater approved/vetted by 3rd party organizations?

Over our 40 year history, Lifewater has received the highest accreditations from the most respected rating organization in the industry. Lifewater is recognized as one of the top-rated charities in the United States by independent reporting organizations, including:

Charity Navigator (four stars)
Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA)
Guidestar (Platinum)
Great Nonprofits (five star)
Excellence in Giving
Learn more at https://lifewater.org/top-rated-charity.

How does Lifewater integrate faith into its work?

Lifewater’s work is founded on the belief that every person is made in the image of God. It is with this conviction that we seek out the globe’s most unreached, marginalized people groups in need of safe water.

Both nationally and internationally, 100 percent of our staff are Christians. These Christian staff help facilitate Lifewater’s Healthy Church strategy in communities. And, where there are no churches, we work with church planting partners to start new churches.

To create Healthy Churches, Lifewater first trains church leaders in foundational theology. These leaders are equipped with the basic story of the Christian faith and the biblical mandate to love others. Leaders learn that stopping the spread of disease and caring for the vulnerable aligns with our responsibility as Christians to love our neighbor.

Second, Lifewater ensures churches have safe bathrooms on their premises, handwashing stations, clean water nearby, and the education to promote health within their congregations. It’s imperative that churches are early adopters of healthy hygiene practices.

Third, Lifewater encourages churches to help vulnerable households become Healthy Homes. Church leaders undergo a training to become WASH (water access, sanitation, and hygiene) advocates in their communities. These advocates are encouraged to identify widows, child-headed households, the elderly, and the disabled to help them meet the health standards of Lifewater’s programs.

What is Lifewater’s process? What does the organization do, and how does it do it?

Lifewater’s Vision of a Healthy Village strategy is a relationship-first method. This model transforms entire regions house by house, village by village, and school by school. It is among the most intensive household-level work happening in the entire developing world and is closely tracked for progress, sustainability, and overall impact.

We construct custom-engineered safe water sources and teach life-saving health and sanitation practices in local villages and schools in need.

Story

Your gift will provide clean water and improved health to families in Ethiopia.

 

Shito’s Life in Bensa, Ethiopia

April 2021

 

Diarrheal disease is a leading cause of death for children under the age of five. In Bensa, Ethiopia, Lifewater’s surveyed families and found that 17% of children under the age of five had suffered from the illness the week prior.

That’s a high number, and it inevitably means many children are being lost to illness in Bensa.

Shito, a mother of four young children, lives in Bensa in a village called West Ta”a. To get water each day, Shito or her children walk for 30 minutes to reach a natural spring. Shito said the water is red and animals drink from it.

They try to go early in the morning while the water is still settled and not as murky. Despite her efforts, Shito’s children still get dangerously sick from the water. She and her husband, Kirba, have brought the children to the health center many times for treatment.

“I hope that the scarcity and deep rooted problem of water is once and for all solved in our village,” she said.

Shito loves her children. She spends her entire day working to keep them fed, warm, and educated.

“My dream is to see all my children become doctors,” Shito said. “I wish for them to have bright futures and prosperous lives.”

With safe water and healthy children, Shito hopes to continue her own education.

“I want to continue my education from grade eight where I stopped during my marriage,” she said.

When you give safe water, you serve mothers just like Shito in Bensa, Ethiopia. Your gifts send health experts and water technicians to remote villages in need, ending long walks for contaminated water and bringing hope to communities in need.

Ethiopia

 

About Ethiopia

 

115 million people live in Ethiopia. A third of them are drinking contaminated water. It is estimated that 7.5% of the global water crisis is in Ethiopia alone. 

This water crisis has consequences for everything from child mortality rates to agricultural outputs.

The majority of families Lifewater serves in Ethiopia rely on agriculture for their annual income.  In these rural areas, women and children may walk more than three hours a day to gather water from rivers or ponds animals also use. 

Children miss days and weeks of school every year and mothers lose time they could have spent cooking or tending to their fields, all for contaminated water that makes them sick.

These water challenges create sanitation obstacles as well. Almost 1 in 4 people in Ethiopia do not have access to a toilet, so they go out in the open. This is a major public health crisis.

The good news is, this is entirely preventable. Lifewater’s work shows that waterborne illness can be nearly eliminated with basic access to things like clean drinking water, proper sanitation, and washing hands with soap.

Give safe water to Ethiopia today.

FAQ's

Am I sponsoring a specific village?

Your gift will help provide safe drinking water and improved sanitation and hygiene for the entire Nensebo program rather than one specific village, making it possible for Lifewater to reach this family as well as their neighbors.

Will I receive updates?

Yes! You can expect regular updates on progress in the Nensebo region. And, when the communities in the region are transformed with safe water, you’ll receive a story and photos from a family whose life is changed because of your gift.

Can I visit programs and/or my sponsored water project?

Lifewater has local staff that live and serve among the communities and schools where Lifewater works. Our staff know the language and the culture and are best equipped to serve communities. Because we seek to ensure sustainable water projects and community buy in, we do not allow donors to visit the projects they sponsor. However, we do commit to sending real-time updates, photos, and stories from the projects themselves.

Where does Lifewater work?

With more than 40 years’ experience, LIfewater is the longest-running Christian clean water charity in North America. Over those 40 years, Lifewater has worked in more than 45 different countries. Currently, our work is focused in Sub-Saharan Africa (Ethiopia, Uganda, and Tanzania) and Southeast Asia (Cambodia).

Why these countries and regions?

Lifewater identifies countries and regions that are unreached and underserved with basic water access and sanitation, which means we focus on areas where other organizations are not serving.

Although great strides have been made in the past 20 years to solve the global water crisis, remote and rural populations still remain unreached with adequate water and sanitation. These distant regions are difficult and often costly for governments and NGOs to serve well. Many of these communities feel as though they have been forgotten.

Can I request a water project in a specific country?

Currently, Lifewater has programs in Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, and Cambodia. You can go to lifewater.org/projects to select a specific water project to help. Because our programs are regionalized and made in partnership with the local governments, we are not able to take requests for specific water projects outside of our existing programs.

What percent of funds go towards programs?

Lifewater budgets 80% of expenditures for programs. The remaining 20% is split between administrative/management and fundraising expenses. This ratio is best in class for nonprofits and is why Lifewater has received the highest rating from Charity Navigator.

Administrative/management expenses are used to ensure that we are effective in managing the funds entrusted to us and include the following types of expenses: accounting personnel, leadership time, professional development of staff, external auditors, legal counsel, government registration expenses in every U.S. state, credit card fees for processing donations, bank fees, database maintenance, and office expenses.

Fundraising expenses generate the income needed to do the work that we set out to do. These include the cost of direct mail appeals and communication, marketing projects, donor relations personnel, and email communication systems. Last year, every dollar invested into Lifewater fundraising efforts resulted in $10 of donation for the organization.

Is Lifewater approved/vetted by 3rd party organizations?

Over our 40 year history, Lifewater has received the highest accreditations from the most respected rating organization in the industry. Lifewater is recognized as one of the top-rated charities in the United States by independent reporting organizations, including:

Charity Navigator (four stars)
Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA)
Guidestar (Platinum)
Great Nonprofits (five star)
Excellence in Giving
Learn more at https://lifewater.org/top-rated-charity.

How does Lifewater integrate faith into its work?

Lifewater’s work is founded on the belief that every person is made in the image of God. It is with this conviction that we seek out the globe’s most unreached, marginalized people groups in need of safe water.

Both nationally and internationally, 100 percent of our staff are Christians. These Christian staff help facilitate Lifewater’s Healthy Church strategy in communities. And, where there are no churches, we work with church planting partners to start new churches.

To create Healthy Churches, Lifewater first trains church leaders in foundational theology. These leaders are equipped with the basic story of the Christian faith and the biblical mandate to love others. Leaders learn that stopping the spread of disease and caring for the vulnerable aligns with our responsibility as Christians to love our neighbor.

Second, Lifewater ensures churches have safe bathrooms on their premises, handwashing stations, clean water nearby, and the education to promote health within their congregations. It’s imperative that churches are early adopters of healthy hygiene practices.

Third, Lifewater encourages churches to help vulnerable households become Healthy Homes. Church leaders undergo a training to become WASH (water access, sanitation, and hygiene) advocates in their communities. These advocates are encouraged to identify widows, child-headed households, the elderly, and the disabled to help them meet the health standards of Lifewater’s programs.

What is Lifewater’s process? What does the organization do, and how does it do it?

Lifewater’s Vision of a Healthy Village strategy is a relationship-first method. This model transforms entire regions house by house, village by village, and school by school. It is among the most intensive household-level work happening in the entire developing world and is closely tracked for progress, sustainability, and overall impact.

We construct custom-engineered safe water sources and teach life-saving health and sanitation practices in local villages and schools in need.

Your gift reflects your trust in Lifewater International. We commit to honor your generosity by using your gift to help further the mission and vision of Lifewater International. Your donation is used by Lifewater International according to the project objectives to provide safe drinking water and improved sanitation and hygiene within the specified program area. Lifewater International is a charitable organization as described in 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, registered in the United States. All donations are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law.

Donations are non-refundable. Lifewater International will honor a donor’s request for any pre-approved program or project whenever possible. In rare occasions where this is not possible, gifts will be used where needed, in accordance with the organization’s charitable purpose. In accordance with this policy, donor’s explicitly release Lifewater International from further restriction on such funds.