Ten days is not nearly enough time to capture the full picture of life in Tanzania, but I can offer a snapshot. Days start as the sun rises. In a world with little access to electricity, you live by the patterns of the sun. Children as young as five years old begin their day by doing their morning housework: fetching water, packing their backpacks, getting dressed and walking a kilometer or two along a busy road to go to school. They carry their backpacks, which are nearly as big as they are, and they carry their own water. Many schools do not have access to water and in order to make it through the day in a tropical climate, students need to drink several liters of water a day just to sustain the amount of sweat they lose walking to and from school. Inside their yellow jerry can, polluted water, full of harmful bacteria live and once consumed, many of the children become ill through worms, stomach viruses, typhoid and sometimes even cholera. Some live in a perpetual state of illness, never knowing what being healthy feels like. With growing populations where families have four to seven children, a developing country’s government like Tanzania cannot keep up with the demand to supply their people with clean water. They lack the means, the funds, and the ability to clean enough of the water for people to consume. So even water that comes through their pipes, located outside of their homes, is contaminated as it comes down the mountains by animal feces, human waste, trash, and more. Coming through a pipe, it gives the illusion of treatment, but in reality, danger lies within the sometimes clear water. In villages, pipes buried only a few feet below the ground are dug up and cut so water can be stolen. And when the pipes are reburied, they aren’t secured and then the water source is contaminated further. This is an injustice that affects millions of people and without clean water, the poor suffer, they cannot sustain a healthy live and sometimes they die. This problem affects the least of these in the world – those who have little or no money, who have little or no education and because of that, they have little voice in the world.
Everywhere there are injustices and evidences that we live in a broken world. Harmful and contaminated water is the one God impressed upon my heart to be a part of the solution. I can’t solve every problem in the world, but I believe that as a Christian, I can be like in Jesus in making things right, like they will be in Heaven, where He has empowered me. I believe I can act as ambassadors for Christ in giving clean water and loving others well. The world is so much smaller now and I can’t ignore the things happening half a world away – the Tanzanians & Ugandans are as much my fellow man as my next-door neighbor. They are my fellow man, and I can’t ignore the suffering in their lives. So I can give so that the poor and forgotten can have access to a better life: one that isn’t spending every shilling on medical costs because of sickness from contaminated water; one that isn’t spent on gathering water several times a day, but one where children can go to school and parents can go to work and they can live better lives. I believe clean water is an essential building block for life – until people have this basic need met, it’s difficult to do anything else.
The Tanzanians have a phrase: “Maji ni Uhai” — “Water is Life.” And it’s easy to see how lack of access to water, unclean water and contaminated water is death… but with clean water, there is life.
One thing I chose to do with my business last year was to donate $100 from every wedding I book to give a family clean water through donating a bio-sand water filter through Thirst Relief International. So every couple who books me is part of bringing life to one family in a developing country. These filters are built with local labor and are part of creating a better, healthier life for a family that has little to nothing in the world. My hope is that clean water will be a bridge for the good news of Jesus to be shared, that clean water will transform their lives, allow them to live a better life and be a change in their communities. I also volunteered to photograph and document the places ThristRelief is working to be a part of ending the world water crisis. I photographed people, places and problems in Uganda for two months last year and this year I took Maggie Hargrave, another photographer, and Jeff Coombes, a videographer, to help me tell a more complete story in Tanzania. I’ll be sharing a little bit more on my blog this week. My goal was to supply ThirstRelief and SON International with images to help tell the stories of the people they are serving in a way that will hopefully compel others to join in giving to be a part of the solution. Giving people access to clean water is something we can be a part of. And we can do so much more together! I hope you’ll consider partnering with me to give monthly to be a part of the solution for the World Water Crisis. Something as small as $10 a month can make an enormous difference in bringing life to those suffering from contaminated water. I’ll be sharing more this week from our trip. We’re so grateful for everyone who helped support our trip and in bringing Mkoko village the generator and pump needed to finish their well and to give some filters for the families in the village. I can’t wait to share more from this village!
