- Do you have a cell phone? More people in the world own cell phones than have access to a toilet.
- The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns.
- A bathtub holds 151L of water - someone living in a slum may have 30L of water to use for their needs all day long.
- Diarrhea remains the second leading cause of death among children under five globally. Nearly one in five child deaths – about 1.5 million each year – is due to diarrhea. It kills more young children than AIDS, malaria and measles combined.
- Every 20 seconds, a child dies from a water-related disease.
- In just one day, more than 200 million hours of women’s time is consumed for the most basic of human needs — collecting water for domestic use. This lost productivity is greater than the combined number of hours worked in a week by employees at Wal*Mart, United Parcel Service, McDonald’s, IBM, Target, and Kroger.
- At any given time, half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from diseases associated with lack of access to safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene.
- As of December 5th more than 2000 people died in Hatti due to cholera.
Today’s water crisis is not an issue of scarcity, but of access. As you think about ways to involve the children in your ministry in "Putting Feet to Their Faith" consider getting involved with World Vision's project to bring clean, safe drinking water to people around the world! As World Vision says, "The Clean Water Fund is a partnership between World Vision and Procter & Gamble's 'Children's Safe Drinking Water (CSDW)' program. Families in World Vision program areas in Rwanda have recently benefited from the 3-billionth liter of clean drinking water in the developing world as a result of this program. Keith Kall, World Vision's senior director of global corporate partnerships, says: 'No other humanitarian intervention has a more dramatic effect on children and families than access to clean water and sanitation.' Bringing PUR packets, with P&G's help, to remote villages in places like Rwanda, where the only other option for drinking water is to gather from muddy rivers and ponds, contributes to safer and healthier lives for families and children who are otherwise fighting constant infections from drinking contaminated water."
More than 2.7 billion people, worldwide, do not have access to safe drinking water. You can involve the children in your ministry by raising money to pay for the PUR packets. You could send a gift as small as $25 or for any amount as it all will help provide clean, safe drinking water for children and families in need around the world! These PUR packets are a "powdered mixture which removes pathogenic microorganisms and suspended matter, within minutes making previously contaminated water clean."
World Vision "works closely with churches in local communities where they are serving to distribute Bibles, sponsor Vacation Bible Schools and other activities. They work with these churches as they are the ones who will nurture the faith of new believers. These churches help World Vision understand the needs of their communities, provide staff and volunteers and continue to care for the communities after World Vision is gone". In countries where churches are not allowed, World Vision works so the things they do, such as providing clean water, communicates their faith and may be used by God as a "seed" to point people to Him.
Think about what you can do to involve the children in your ministry in Putting Feet to Their Faith as they raise money to help provide clean, safe drinking water for children and families around the world!
The photos in this post are copyrighted 2009 World Vision; all rights reserved. Used with permission
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