St. Mary’s Episcopal Church of Laguna Beach recently raised $6,000 to build a well in an impoverished village in northern Uganda that previously didn’t have access to clean drinking water.
One in five children from rural Uganda die before their fifth birthday after contracting illnesses such as typhoid and dysentery from drinking contaminated water. The vast majority of the time-consuming and physically demanding work of fetching water in this region is done by women and girls, walking for miles while carrying jerry cans that weigh up to 40 pounds.
“St. Mary’s was able to help alleviate this cycle of poverty and sickness by donating to Wells of Life, a nonprofit based here in southern California, which is doing wonderful work in Uganda by providing access to clean water through the drilling of wells in the villages,” the church said in a statement.
Wells of life has dug over 500 wells since its founding in 2008. Nick Jordan, the nonprofit’s founder and executive director, lives in south Orange County. Jordan spoke at St. Mary’s during the recent fundraising campaign, describing how Wells of Life has delivered transformational access to clean water to more than 500,000 people.
Girls can attend to school since they no longer spend so much time acquiring water. Their mothers are now able to start small businesses to help keep their families alive, since many survive on $1.90 a day.
Later this year, St. Mary’s will host Jordan again to talk about Wells of Life and hopefully inspire humanitarian-minded organizations to join this endeavor
For more information, visit wellsoflife.org or stmaryslagunabeach.org.
We have people living in trailer parks in Thermal California and surrounding areas with no clean water to drink. maybe save some for them;…