A 6th Day Challenge

Give today's gift - Donate $24 in the next 24 hours and be a part of bringing 6 Years of Safe Water to a Family in Africa. Help us reach our goal of 100 Families with safe water. Continue reading below to discover what this gift truly means for a family.

We're halfway through, making today the 6th Day - The gift of 6 years of safe water for a family. Today we reflect on what a gift access to safe water really is for a family in Africa.

It's hard for us to conceptualize what safe water for a family means.

Our lives our so dependent upon it, and yet it is so abundant, we barely give it a second thought. Trying to imagine what life would be like without safe water is hard. Research tells us that the global impact of unsafe water has a huge impact on people:

• 24,000 children under the age of five die every day from preventable causes like diarrhea contracted from unsafe water
• 90% of all deaths caused by diarrheal diseases are children under 5 years of age, mostly in developing countries.
• 443 million school days are lost each year due to water-related illness.
• Children in poor environments often carry 1,000 parasitic worms in their bodies at any time.
• In just one day, more than 200 million hours of women's time is consumed for collecting water for domestic use.

Those are huge numbers, and it's hard to connect what they really mean for a family. At Blood:Water Mission we don't have to imagine it, we see it every time we travel to Africa. We have the incredible privilege, not only of partnering with communities to bring safe water, but to see the life-changing impact it has on real people - People we know:

• Mazyopa community school in Zambia: the school's founder, Frank Kaonga, lost 2 children to cholera. He is working with our partner to install biosand filters for the school's 300 students and building separate boys' and girls' latrines.
• Cyanika, Rwanda: Mrs. Kamanzi Venantia in told us, "I used to walk from 6 a.m to 4 p.m and come back with 20 liters of water, which was not enough for my family. But, now with this tank available here, we have access to 80 liters a day and I can find time to work for my family". BWM is working to bring rain collection systems like this for the 7,000 people living in this community.
• Abung Genga, Uganda: Regina Okeng has 8 children and has watched their health improve, saying they no longer suffer from constant stomach aches. "Our prayer is that others will be blessed with water like us". BWM completed projects in 33 neighboring communities this fall, and they are experiencing the same blessing as Regina and her family.

We have met hundreds of families just like these three. There are thousands of families we have never met whose stories carry the same hope and the same joy. We are excited to be able bring the gift of clean water to more families this coming year. Come join us in the giving.

Give today's gift - be a part of bringing 6 years of clean water to a family in Africa.