Blood:Water Mission Meets Needs of a Dying Continent

A woman walks as far as 10 miles to get water from the nearest well. She must carry it atop her head for the return trip of 10 miles back to the village-a task that takes half a day. Once there, she will serve her family by preparing a meal and using what water is left over to scrub the linens. Her entire day revolves around the conquest and usage of water. A typical story in a continent where wells pumping out clean water are few and far between, and the bodies vying for their refreshment are many.

Another woman sticks a bill in a vending machine at her workplace. She presses the button A4 and watches the magic coil revolve, depositing a sweet treat to the machine’s floor. Clunk. Chocolate goodness at her fingertips. She takes the 35 cents in change and stuffs in her pocket. It later falls out in the washing machine, never to be seen again.

These women are alike in chromosome, and perhaps blood type. But the similarities end there. Before you stop reading, please consider that the second woman is every one of us. (And most certainly myself.) Careless with small amounts of money, she is quick to consume without thought or care to the needs our pocket change could meet half a world away.

About eight months ago, I saw music artist Derek Webb in concert, and he brought information and showed a short video about Blood:Water Mission, a grassroots initiative, promoted primarily by Christian rock band Jars of Clay, meant to address the needs of a dying African continent: clean blood and clean water. Derek shared about Blood:Water’s effort to provide clean water to men and women in 1000 different African communities through the 1000 wells project.

$1 = clean water for 1 person for 1 year.

I’d like to say that I emptied my pockets that night, picked up some literature on the project, and asked my community to get involved in this worthy cause. Instead I took the apathetic way out and told myself I would visit bloodwatermission.org and donate online. I forgot soon after. Funny that I didn’t forget to make a few purchases on eBay in the last 8 monthsâÂ?¦or pay some bills online, or check my e-mail a few thousand times. But I forgot to give a cup of cold water to a child.

There are so many things demanding our money these days. In my own life, those things are food, shelter, fuel, bills, and the sickening debt of my student loans. I do not mean to suggest that your day-to-day expenses are any less demanding.

But I have to put my personal feelings on the subject away, because I certainly don’t feel guilty about asking anybody to give one dollar to help another human being drink water.

If you are like me, and hardly think about the plight of the dying, I’d challenge you to give up something you want-something of great worth to you that you’ve had your eye on buying. Then take that money and give it to help someone who would never be able to dream about owning anything like that. It doesn’t have to be Blood:Water Mission, but this could be a place to start. (For me, that thing right now is an iPod. And that person is the woman trekking 20 miles every day by foot for clean water.)