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Clean water. A simple gift that saves families

Written by Danielle Kinvig

December 6, 2013

Salamonde rises at dawn. She quietly slips away from her home, leaving her husband and four young children to go and fetch water for the day.

As she nears the stream by her village, she isn’t alone. There are dozens of women and children at the water’s edge, waiting to fill their metal basins with its putrid liquid.

The water is muddy, polluted, and riddled with disease and parasites. Further upstream, it is used to bathe in, to launder clothes, and often, to wash the belongings of the deceased. It is the only source of water for thousands living in the remote regions of northern Benin, West Africa.

It’s Salamonde’s turn to fill her basin. This filthy water is what she’ll cook with, drink, and bathe her children in. Today, she is lucky; there is water here. In the dry season, there will be none. She will have to dig a hole and wait hours for ground water to fill it, or she will go in search of another source of water, sometimes taking the entire day.

By the time she returns home, Salamonde’s family is awake and hungry. Her husband, Davide, is angry. Today, as he does most days, he will spend what little money they have to buy a bottle of alcohol at the market. He will come home after a hard day in the fields, tired, hungry and drunk. If dinner is not prepared on time – or simply, if he is unhappy – he will beat his wife.

Salamonde’s young children, Robert, 12, Mongbe, 4, Collette, 3, and Wenhabe, 2, also suffer. They have stomach pains. They cough. Their skin itches. Salamonde knows that the dirty water is slowly killing her family. It causes diarrhea, which leads to rapid dehydration, and if it’s not treated – death. At times, the water can also be a source of cholera and typhoid.

But, she has no other choice.

Water streams like this one are the only sources of water for many people. They are muddy, polluted and riddled with disease and parasites.

The cycle of suffering and death that contaminated drinking water has caused for generations is not unique to Salamonde’s village of Yalimaro, Benin. Thousands of people suffer in the same way. That is why, through the Water for Life Initiative, Global Aid Network (GAiN) – the humanitarian partner of Power to Change – is providing deep-capped water wells right in the heart of villages, giving families like Salamonde’s access to pure, disease-free water.

Since GAiN provided a well in Yalimaro, Salamonde and Davide lead happier, simpler lives. Salamonde no longer spends her days travelling to collect dirty water. Now, she goes to the local well and fills her basin with pure, fresh, disease-free water for her family. She prepares healthy meals for her children quickly and easily, and when she is done her work, she joins her husband in the fields. Together they farm rice, maize, yams, soya, and beans. Their children no longer suffer from debilitating sickness.

With every water well GAiN provides, the love of God is demonstrated in word and deed. Not only do people receive fresh, clean water and better health, they also have the opportunity to accept the Living Water.

In partnership with the JESUS Film Church Planting Strategy (JFCPS), with every three wells in Benin, an average of 850 people hear the gospel through JESUS Film showings and personal evangelism, 183 make a decision to follow Jesus, one new church is planted, pastors and laypeople are equipped, and existing churches are strengthened.

When the JESUS Film was shown in Yalimaro, 15 people indicated a decision to follow Jesus. Davide and Salamonde were two of those who came forward. In the days following the film screening, church members from a nearby village met with Davide and Salamonde, discipling them and building them up in their newfound faith.

Since Davide has become a Christian, he no longer spends his family’s money on alcohol, and he has stopped beating his wife. “Now that I have met the Lord, things have changed,” he says. “Everyone in my family goes to church and we have noticed that this is better life. Everything is clear. Our kids are healthier, they have less troubles and everybody is happy. This has improved our marriage life a lot.”

Today, there is a church-plant in Yalimaro with 18 adults and over 20 children. “I am happy today because my family goes to church,” adds Salamonde. “My kids are going to learn about what is good and what is not good.”

Hope is being restored. Over 400,000 people have already received clean water in Benin, and over 24,000 of them have become followers of Jesus! New believers—young and old—are being discipled in their village and 137 churches have been planted.

But there are still hundreds of villages without clean water living in spiritual darkness. Just one water well provides an average of 1,000 people with access to fresh, disease-free water for generations to come.

This Christmas season, would you invest in the lives of men, women and children in desperate need of the hope of Jesus Christ? Your gift will help supply a well and bring clean water and transformation to thousands of families in Benin.

Clean water. It is a simple gift that can change everything.