MCDOWELL COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA. – “I live on land owned by my family since the 1800s, maybe longer. I never wanted to move anywhere else. I grew up surrounded by family. This is the place I want to be until I pass away – and then be buried.”

Diane Farmer never used to think about the water, which had always been plentiful and clean, flowing from her family’s well in Leckie, W.Va. When she married in 1974, she and her husband built a house on the family property and a generation later, one of their children did the same. She didn’t imagine then what it would be like to grow old in McDowell County today, without clean water.

“We buy gallons of bottled water to drink, to do dishes…we do not even give our animals our well water,” she explained.

Farmer is a member of Boyd’s Chapel United Methodist Church in Leckie. Her pastor, the Rev. Brad Davis, cares for this and four other churches in the Welch Charge. He arrived two years ago and was appalled to discover what some of the members and their communities struggled through every day.

McDowell County has produced a bounty of fuel for West Virginia’s energy business over many decades, coal and natural gas, predominantly, as well as steel production. In 2019, strip-mining companies started production in the area, one just up the road from the Farmers.

“Our water started getting rust colored. It has only gotten worse since then,” Farmer confirmed. “We use the water to clean, to take showers, not really even to wash our clothes. We have to pay attention to what color clothing we buy because we know our water will ruin it.”

McDowell County is one of the poorest in the U.S., and the communities of Anawalt, Leckie and Gary are some of the hardest hit by the current six-year water crisis. All have Methodist churches that are part of the Welch Charge.

Pastor Davis, and a colleague pastor, Caitlin Ware, felt a clear directive from God to do something.

The small communities have made plans and proposed solutions to build clean water systems. But Anawalt’s already-approved public system upgrade project needs full funding ($7 million) and includes a plan to connect the affected wells in Leckie to the system. Gary has a municipal water system in need of technical and infrastructure upgrades, which has not been a state priority for years.

Residents have spent far too much money on filters and filter systems that break down under the pressure of the rust and black sludge that enters their wells and public water systems. They made many trips to spring water sites to collect water for themselves, family members and neighbors, only to discover that the spring water also had contaminants. In addition, Central Appalachia has some of the highest cancer rates in the country.

Although the lack of clean water is a problem that affects other counties and other states that cross parts of Appalachia, the pastors began to investigate what other groups were doing and decided to concentrate their efforts on the three municipalities in this area where they had direct connections into the communities through their churches.

Rev. Ware, who first arrived in the southern coalfields to complete a graduate school requirement, says they started by developing an educational immersion experience called “From Below,” funded by the United Methodist Foundation of West Virginia. She currently pastors the Blackwater Charge, three United Methodist churches in Tucker County, W. Va., which borders Maryland.

“We took a group of nearly 40 people along the path the miners took to Blair Mountain during the West Virginia Mine Wars, visited historical sites, and met with community members actively working for the benefit of McDowell County. From Below morphed into a movement advocating for clean water, land access and economic development in the southern coalfields,” Ware explains, “From Below: Rising Together for Coalfield Justice.” They partnered with the West Virginia Faith Collective to strengthen their advocacy and further amplify neglected and forgotten voices in McDowell County.

“We believe the solution to this problem involves funding public water infrastructure projects, organizing local people to ensure those projects are carried out, and providing residents with clean water until those projects are completed,” Ware said.

Rev. Davis confirmed that since March 2024, their team of volunteers has provided residents of the three towns with thousands of cases of water, a stop-gap measure until permanent system solutions are begun. It’s a colossal feat, and it also represents a mountain of plastic. The Welch Charge contacted the WV Conference Disaster Response Coordinator, Jim McCune, for help. This is out of the ordinary for most disaster response offices, but McCune described the water crisis as a long-term, slow-moving disaster whose severity only increases the longer residents must wait.

McCune’s United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) connection put him in touch with Global Ministries’ Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) program. A WASH grant allowed them to obtain a 500-gallon “water buffalo.”

“We can now provide the water in a more sustainable and environmentally friendly way,” said Davis.

The conference disaster response team arranged to fill the portable water buffalo from the Welch water system, the county seat of McDowell, and transport it to Gary, where residents have been supplied with refillable containers. Residents of all three towns can come to get water, and volunteers will also continue deliveries for those who need it.

Deliveries from the tanker began on Mar. 17, despite a more common disaster that has preoccupied the disaster response teams; southern West Virginia was hit by a severe storm on Feb. 15 that caused major flooding. Even Davis’s home was affected, and Ware joined a team to provide early response.

Global Ministries advocates safe drinking water and basic sanitation and hygiene facilities for all people as a basic human right and is committed to improving health and wellbeing in underserved and marginalized communities in the U.S. and around the world.

Christie R. House is a consultant writer and editor with Global Ministries and UMCOR. Quotes from the pastors and lay people were sourced from an interview by Natallia Rudiak for “Reimagine Appalachia.” The full interview can be watched here. For more information about From Below and the West Virginia Faith Collective, click here.

Celebrate World Water Day with a gift to Water, Hygiene and Sanitation (WASH) projects, Advance # 3020600 to keep this precious, life-saving resource flowing.

The post Easing the water crisis in West Virginia appeared first on Global Ministries.

ATLANTA – “Water for Peace” is the theme of World Water Day 2024, celebrated on Friday, March 22. The struggle to access clean water along with ambiguity around water rights can plunge communities into local and regional conflict. As global temperatures rise, worries about having enough water for households, gardens, agriculture and animals raise tensions.

Public health, food, energy systems, economic productivity and environmental integrity rely on water resources that are equitably managed. When these vital human activities are secure and stable, tensions decrease, and peace can take root, even in communities that experience conflict and scarcity.

United Methodists can celebrate World Water Day with pride. Through Global Ministries’ Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) program, water resources in places like South Sudan and Haiti have been improved and maintained through peaceful means that invite participation by whole communities.

The Primary Health Care Unit in Alok, South Sudan, saw a drastic increase in cases of diarrhea and stomach ailments in the surrounding community just two weeks after its well broke down.

The health care facility, a local market and two schools depend on this well for clean water, but the local health authorities said they did not have parts to fix the pump. Villagers began to draw untreated water directly from the Kueng River.

A visionary program developed by partners in South Sudan and supported by a grant from Global Ministries sent a team out to repair the well the day after they were notified. This remarkable team is one of 14 trained across areas of the Bhar el-Ghazal region of South Sudan.

Most team members participating in this initiative are women with no prior mechanical training, often heads of households, responsible for children and aging parents. Today, their families’ lives are greatly improved because this training includes courses on how to make well repair a business…a business in which they thrive.

Normally, when a well breaks down in South Sudan and there are no technicians and no parts available, it may be weeks, or even years before a repair crew arrives. The Women’s Well Repair Initiative provides a solution and increases economic resources, self-sustainability, women’s participation in community initiatives, health care, education and overall stability for communities in which it works.

Two key partners involved in this training project, Water is Basic (WIB) and Women’s Empowerment Solutions Initiative (WESI) of South Sudan, designed the program to reach 300+ communities in Bhar el-Ghazal. Well and pump parts are purchased wholesale and stored at local churches and other community facilities willing to warehouse them.

Program managers in South Sudan sought out women who could handle the physical demands of well-repair and the ability to learn a new trade, whose families were struggling. Churches nominated candidates, like Julia, a mother of three in Alok whose husband was absent. Her pastor described her as “someone who bore the weight of suffering most acutely within her community,” yet the congregation voted unanimously to nominate her for the training.

Today, she is a team leader, her children are enrolled in school and she has improved her home and helped others in her family build homes too.

Another project supported by Global Ministries in Bhar el-Ghazal is working to drill new borehole wells in four villages. This partner, Mission to Alleviate Suffering in South Sudan (MASS), not only builds the wells, it helps communities form water committees and identify members for training. Like the WIB-WESI program, 10 water mechanics are being trained to keep the wells in working order.

An additional campaign to provide training in hygiene practices and distribute WASH supplies to roughly 7,500 residents in the villages ensures that residents understand the best WASH practices and water resource maintenance. Conflicts over water are greatly reduced when the community itself sets up and maintains water committees.

Adut, one of the women chosen to serve on a water committee in Aweil North, takes her responsibility seriously. “I am here to represent women and show our community that women, just like men, can play an important role in driving community development. I will work with my colleagues to ensure our water point remains operational and that when we have a breakdown, we will solve the problem within the shortest time.”

Miles across the Atlantic Ocean from South Sudan, Haitian communities that have endured natural disasters, civil unrest and relocation for many reasons assess resources for clean water and sanitation in their villages.

A grant to Fondation Voix des Communautes de Base (FVCB), formerly known as Heart to Heart, has helped about 10,000 people to form Mutual Solidarity (MUSO) community groups to construct and maintain household latrines and handwashing stations and clean up their environment. Combined with community education on proper hygiene, they have a good chance of decreasing outbreaks of cholera and other waterborne diseases that plague Haiti.

A member of one of the MUSO groups noted: “We didn’t know that one person can contaminate others living in the same community when he or she doesn’t respect the good principles of water, hygiene and sanitation. I don’t want to cause the people in my house and neighborhood to get sick. That is why I decided to build my latrine.”

On World Water Day, people the world over express their thanks for this wonderful gift of God. Of all the resources the world has to ensure everyone has water, it is people – working together – that is the most powerful resource of all.

Christie R. House is a consultant writer and editor for Global Ministries and UMCOR.

Global Health
Through United Methodist conferences and health boards, Global Ministries works to strengthen whole networks of health responses, from revitalization of facilities and staff training to building better water sources, developing sanitation facilities and promoting nutrition. Global Health concentrates on eradicating preventable diseases, such as malaria, HIV and AIDS, and COVID-19, and supporting the most vulnerable populations, including mothers, newborns and children.

The post Access to clean water offers stability in areas of conflict appeared first on Global Ministries.

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In the high windswept plateau of the Andes known as the Altiplano, Quechua and Aymara Indigenous communities live their lives much as their ancestors did in this same place for centuries. They have a rich culture and history. But that doesn’t mean they want to block all forms of modern progress, especially projects that will improve their health and wellbeing. 

Julia was born and raised in Zamora, a small rural community in Omasuyos province in Bolivia. She’s been a member of the Evangelical Methodist Church in Bolivia all her life. Growing up, both at home and in the church, there were no bathrooms. It was the custom to use a spot in the river or on the hillside. It wasn’t until she was 19 and left Zamora for El Alto City that she discovered the convenience of a restroom. 

“Now I know the value of a restroom and how it helps to improve our lives,” she said. “I would like for all the people of my home community in Zamora to know the joy of having a restroom.” 

Julia’s children and now her grandchildren have grown up with this comfort and take it for granted. But when they visited their relatives in Zamora, they felt uncomfortable. 

The Evangelical Methodist Church has been making steady progress in building sanitation facilities one by one, church by church, with the help of Global Ministries’ Global Health Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) program and another partner, Engineers in Action (EIA)-Bolivia. This year, three sanitation stations will be completed: Pan de Vida church located in Konani, Emmanuel in Quelcata and Luz de Sevencani in Zamora. 

In these small communities, the church sanitation facilities, which are constructed as separate buildings outside the churches, will be open for everyone in the community to use, whether or not they are church members. 

Engineers in Action, or Fundación Ingenieros en Acción (FIEA) in Spanish, has both Ecuadorian and Bolivian nonprofit organizations. Founded in 2007 by a UMC pastor and former missionary in Bolivia, the Rev. David Stephenson, the partnership formed between the Oklahoma Conference and the Evangelical Methodist Church of Bolivia grew to become a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in the United States.

In places where water infrastructure does not already exist, seemingly simple sanitation facilities can entail a lot of work, but EIA is equipped for the task. Often, in addition to building restroom and handwashing stations, EIA will increase water storage capacity and install new water pipelines. If the church is in a place that can be connected to a municipal water source, like Konani, EIA will do that. But if, like in Zamora, there are no existing sources, they will construct septic tanks for wastewater treatment. 

In all cases, EIA develops educational materials to familiarize community members with their new facilities and help them develop ways to continue water treatment and proper water storage. These community trainings and workshops also open the door for people to understand the importance of clean water and how poor water causes preventable disease. Communities that have never had restrooms do not intuitively understand daily hygiene practice, but EIA stays on and trains community members so that the full benefits of the new facilities can be realized. 

Seeing the new facilities in her ancestral home, Julia expressed her gratitude. “Now that everyone in this community has access to restrooms, we are so happy,” she confirmed. “The restroom helps us to have a suma kamasiña kumitaki, a good and healthy life.” 

In the aftermath of a severe earthquake in April 2016, recovery efforts in Ecuador concentrated on urban areas. Reconnecting water sources in rural areas, like Rocafuerte, lagged behind. In 2020, EIA Ecuador identified a permanent water source for Rocafuerte communities and, with support from a Global Health grant, participated with municipal governments and other nongovernmental organizations to construct facilities to enable the installation of a treatment plant with capacity to provide safe water for 9 communities (about 3,000 people). This project also allowed EIA to further assess the post-pandemic health status and resilience of the communities. 

This year, EIA will extend its work on this project with workshops and trainings in the nine communities focusing on health, nutrition and disaster response. Further infrastructure upgrades are also planned to connect the next five highland communities to the new water supply: El Cerro, Tierra Bonita, Paja Colorada, Cerro Verde and El Moyuyo. 

Juana, a 34-year-old mother of two, has lived in Paja Colorada her whole life. Her community was one that was connected to the new water source through the work of EIA. She has been attending the EIA workshops with other community members to learn more about their new water system and how to care for it. Particularly, EIA provides education on household water treatment and safe storage as well as hygiene and handwashing. 

This project requires more infrastructure, help from the municipal governments and other nongovernmental agencies to finish the water connections and provide ongoing monitoring and evaluation. The communities have formed water boards or committees to participate in decisions about their water infrastructure. 

These “big” projects reach more people than the WASH projects in Bolivia, but both reach community members whose lives and health are improved. For Juana, finally being able to access clean water in Paja Colorada has helped to fulfil a dream to give her children a better quality of life. 

Christie R. House is a consultant writer and editor with Global Ministries and UMCOR. An earlier article in 2021 outlined the first phases of these projects in Bolivia and Ecuador. 

Christie R. House is a consultant writer and editor with Global Ministries and UMCOR. An earlier article in 2021 outlined the first phases of these projects in Bolivia and Ecuador.

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

Access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation and hygiene facilities remains out of reach for billions of people worldwide. Global Ministries affirms that access to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services is a basic human right and is committed to improving health and wellbeing in underserved and marginalized communities.

In collaboration with both Methodist and ecumenical partners, Global Ministries increases access to clean and safe water; revitalizes sanitation facilities and shares knowledge on sanitation and waste management; and helps to reduce infection from preventable, waterborne diseases by enhancing the quality of care in health facilities.

Celebrate World Water Day with a gift to Water, Hygiene and Sanitation (WASH) projects, Advance # 3020600 to keep this precious, life-saving resource flowing.

The post World Water Day focus: Methodist WASH projects in Bolivia and Ecuador appeared first on Global Ministries.

I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.

Philippians 1:6

A state-of-the-art outpatient department, kitchen and 120-panel solar system are among recent additions at the United Methodist mission hospital at Old Mutare, East Zimbabwe Conference.

The United Methodist Board of Global Ministries’ Global Health unit has supported the Zimbabwe UMC Health Board revitalization of clinics and facilities over a number of years. Since 2019, several facilities have benefited from health system strengthening, which includes a whole and integrated approach to health care, such as training for staff, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) improvements, renewable energy sources, rebuilding of vital facilities and better collection of data and evaluation methods. 

“We are seeing God’s hand in all these developments,” said the Rev. Tafadzwa Musona, the United Methodist district superintendent in Mutasa Nyanga, the hospital’s district. “This has proved to us that God is not limited by economic conditions. He is capable of doing great developments, even in a harsh economy.”

Pleased with the achievement, hospital administrator Monica Nzarayebani marveled at the hospital’s new look and outpatient department. “It is spacious and houses many departments and consultation rooms under one roof, thus meeting Ministry of Health and Child Care standards.”

The comfortable waiting area, Nzarayebani added, “can accommodate many patients in the shade, unlike before when they used to sit on the veranda. Rooms are designated for consultations, medical personnel, neurosurgery and a matron’s office.”

“Triaging is now very simple and short,” she said. “An emergency room is now available for prompt attention to serious patients.”

She added that the outpatient department is connected to the maternity, family and child health departments. “The waiting mothers’ shelter is now complete, enabling the hospital to serve areas outside our catchment area.”

The 60-capacity facility is usually full, often overflowing.

Without a need for hasty transfers to Victoria Chitepo Provincial Hospital, Old Mutare is receiving patients from other areas including urban Mutare because power is always available from a recently installed solar system. It assists with energy backup and lighting and maintains refrigeration for vaccines, especially those for children under age 5. The maternity ward now has back-up power for deliveries any time of day or night, and solar power aids specimen preservation. All tests are now being done at the mission hospital.

With the government complementing the church’s efforts, the hospital has almost reached its staffing goal of 40 nurses. Twelve of the nurses are midwives, Nzarayebani said.

The Rev. Tadeus Lawrence Mwadiwa, station chair for Old Mutare Mission, expressed joy and gratitude. “All these developments,” Mwadiwa said, “have made us proud as a church, and the hospital is now close to (becoming) a provincial hospital.”

An additional grant from Global Health will be used to renovate Old Mutare’s operating room this year.

Kudzai Chingwe is a communicator for the United Methodist Zimbabwe East Conference.

Global Health

Through United Methodist conferences and health boards, Global Ministries works to strengthen whole networks of health responses, from revitalization of facilities and staff training to building better water sources, developing sanitation facilities and promoting nutrition. Global Health concentrates on eradicating preventable diseases, such as malaria, HIV and AIDS and COVID-19, and supporting the most vulnerable populations, including mothers, newborns and children.

A gift to Abundant Health, Advance # 3021770, will support this work and other life-saving health interventions around the world.

The post New facilities with enhanced care at Old Mutare Hospital in Zimbabwe appeared first on Global Ministries.

By Christie R. House

Over two years, despite the spread of COVID-19, United Methodists in Côte d’Ivoire worked diligently to bring clean water to four different villages. Along with the tall towers that hold the water and the parts for pumping stations, spigots for wash areas and, in some cases, a solar array for power – newly formed villages water committees received knowledge and new skills as well.

 “The communities received this project with joy,” said the Rev. Dr. Jean Claude Masuka Maleka, a missionary and evangelist with Global Ministries who coordinated the water project.

The villages of Istha, Allangouanou, Soukoukro and Youhil, with tens of thousands of people in total, now come to draw clean water from their new systems. They used to draw water from contaminated rivers, streams and wells.

“A nurse from a village clinic told us that clean water has boosted health conditions overall, because she hasn’t seen as many cases of diarrhea since people started using water supplied from the tower,” Masuka Maleka confirmed.

Dedication ceremonies in the villages drew large numbers of men, women and children. An elected chief in Soukoukro noted that he had never been able to offer his people clean, running water, nor had he ever had it himself. “I thank The United Methodist Church,” he said. “I am Catholic, but we serve the same God, thank you.”

Because the formation of water committees and training for their members were part of the project plan, all four villages maintain their water systems, ensuring that the water will keep flowing.

Christie R. House is a consultant writer and editor with Global Ministries.

Learn more and support the work of Global Health
Through United Methodist conferences and health boards, the work of global health strengthens whole networks of health responses, from revitalization of facilities and staff training to building better water sources, developing sanitation facilities and promoting nutrition. Global Health continues to concentrate on eradicating preventable diseases, such as malaria, HIV and AIDS and COVID-19, and supporting the most vulnerable populations, including mothers, newborns and children.

Make a gift to the work of global health to keep the life-saving resource of water flowing.

The post Clean water flows in rural Côte d’Ivoire communities appeared first on Global Ministries.

By Christie R. House

Over two years, despite the spread of COVID-19, United Methodists in Côte d’Ivoire worked diligently to bring clean water to four different villages. Along with the tall towers that hold the water and the parts for pumping stations, spigots for wash areas and, in some cases, a solar array for power – newly formed villages water committees received knowledge and new skills as well.

 “The communities received this project with joy,” said the Rev. Dr. Jean Claude Masuka Maleka, a missionary and evangelist with Global Ministries who coordinated the water project.

The villages of Istha, Allangouanou, Soukoukro and Youhil, with tens of thousands of people in total, now come to draw clean water from their new systems. They used to draw water from contaminated rivers, streams and wells.

“A nurse from a village clinic told us that clean water has boosted health conditions overall, because she hasn’t seen as many cases of diarrhea since people started using water supplied from the tower,” Masuka Maleka confirmed.

Dedication ceremonies in the villages drew large numbers of men, women and children. An elected chief in Soukoukro noted that he had never been able to offer his people clean, running water, nor had he ever had it himself. “I thank The United Methodist Church,” he said. “I am Catholic, but we serve the same God, thank you.”

Because the formation of water committees and training for their members were part of the project plan, all four villages maintain their water systems, ensuring that the water will keep flowing.

Christie R. House is a consultant writer and editor with Global Ministries.

Learn more and support the work of UMCOR
Through United Methodist conferences and health boards, the work of global health strengthens whole networks of health responses, from revitalization of facilities and staff training to building better water sources, developing sanitation facilities and promoting nutrition. Global Health continues to concentrate on eradicating preventable diseases, such as malaria, HIV and AIDS and COVID-19, and supporting the most vulnerable populations, including mothers, newborns and children.

Make a gift to the work of UMCOR to keep the life-saving resource of water flowing.

The post Clean water flows in rural Côte d’Ivoire communities appeared first on Global Ministries.

By Christie R. House
March 22, 2022 | ATLANTA

Over two years, despite the spread of COVID-19, United Methodists in Côte d’Ivoire worked diligently to bring clean water to four different villages. Along with the tall towers that hold the water and the parts for pumping stations, spigots for wash areas and, in some cases, a solar array for power – newly formed village water committees received knowledge and new skills as well.

 “The communities received this project with joy,” said the Rev. Dr. Jean Claude Masuka Maleka, a missionary and evangelist with Global Ministries who coordinated the water project.

The villages of Istha, Allangouanou, Soukoukro and Youhil, with tens of thousands of people in total, now come to draw clean water from their new systems. They used to draw water from contaminated rivers, streams and wells.

“A nurse from a village clinic told us that clean water has boosted health conditions overall, because she hasn’t seen as many cases of diarrhea since people started using water supplied from the tower,” Masuka Maleka confirmed.

Dedication ceremonies in the villages drew large numbers of men, women and children. An elected chief in Soukoukro noted that he had never been able to offer his people clean, running water, nor had he ever had it himself. “I thank The United Methodist Church,” he said. “I am Catholic, but we serve the same God, thank you.”

Because the formation of water committees and training for their members were part of the project plan, all four villages maintain their water systems, ensuring that the water will keep flowing.

A water tower is truly a thing of beauty. Photos from the villages of Soukoukro and Allangouanou attest to the joy and relief these facilities provide.

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF REV. DR. JEAN CLAUDE MASUKA MALEK

Celebrate World Water Day with a gift to Water, Hygiene and Sanitation (WASH) projects, Advance # 3020600 to keep this precious, life-saving resource flowing.

Christie R. House is a consultant writer and editor with Global Ministries.

The post Can a water tower be a thing of beauty? appeared first on Global Ministries.

Global Health partners with Engineers in Action to bring clean water and sanitation facilities to schools, churches and whole communities. 

By Christie R. House 
June 29, 2021 | ATLANTA 

People living in rural communities outside Rocafuerte in the Manabí province of Ecuador have not had a working water system since an earthquake destroyed theirs five years ago. They buy treated drinking water from Rocafuerte city as well as water tanks for cooking, bathing and washing clothes. Generally, Indigenous families cannot afford $50 dollars a month for water and too often turn to unsafe sources, like local waterways. 

But unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) can have deadly consequences, especially for children. UNICEF estimates that over 700 children under age five die every day of preventable diarrheal diseases because their communities lack appropriate WASH facilities and practices. 

The 2016 quake killed more than 700 people and left 700,000 in need of assistance. Nearly 17,000 quakes of all sizes were recorded in Ecuador that year. Municipalities in the northern coastal areas have concentrated on rebuilding water, transportation and educational infrastructure in urban areas while rural communities still wait for basic water access and sanitation. 

The Fundación Ingenieros En Acción (FIEA) or Engineers in Action, with offices in Ecuador and Bolivia, has been working in Latin America since 2007, dedicated to improving the health and wellbeing of vulnerable communities. FIEA works in partnership with local communities to increase access to water and infrastructure, building their capacity and resilience. Two of its local partners in this work are the Evangelical Methodist Church in Bolivia and the Evangelical United Methodist Church of Ecuador. Global Ministries, through Global Health and the United Methodist Committee on Relief, is a natural international partner. 

In the past two years, FIEA and Global Ministries have worked together on three WASH projects for rural communities that would otherwise have inadequate, or in some cases, no access to clean water or sanitation facilities. 

In an ongoing coastal project in Manabí province, FIEA proposed to drill wells to provide safe water for five communities in the Rocafuerte municipality. As they began their initial surveys and met with members of the local government, they discovered an aqueduct had been built by the former national government to bring water across the Rocafuerte region to a pending oil refinery being built in the city of Manta on the coast. The current national government cancelled the refinery project, but all the pipe infrastructure remained, and local communities gained the right to tie into the aqueduct for their water needs. 

FIEA reworked its original proposal to take advantage of this circumstance and discovered it could cover the five initial communities as well as five more along the line. Instead of digging wells, they would connect to the existing aqueduct. The municipality agreed to provide water treatment. 

In addition to the technical needs of the project, FIEA also implemented community training to familiarize residents with the new water system – how to keep it maintained and the importance of using clean water, proper sanitation and hygiene to increase health and prevent waterborne diseases. This training is an important part of all WASH projects that Global Health and UMCOR support. 

In the village of El Guarango, Estefanía Delgado, a college student, took on the role of president of the water board. Her commitment to providing clean and safe water to her community was commended by FIEA. She attended all the workshops and introduced trainers to her friends and neighbors. 

“The workshops have definitely been informative and helpful during such a complex (COVID-19) health emergency. It has become one of the best ways to share, socialize and enhance knowledge for the benefit of health in the community,” noted Delgado. 

Despite delays in community training because of COVID-19 restrictions, workshops were eventually held and were timely as FIEA trainers demonstrated safe practices to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and other communicable diseases. Community members who attend training also receive a WASH kit with soap, cleaning supplies and masks. 

In the Pastocalle community on the slopes of Ecuador’s Cotopaxi volcano, a Methodist school has provided education, grades K through seven, to the predominantly Indigenous population for more than 20 years. Recent government decisions require the school to include additional grades through high school. El Sembrador School, of the Evangelical United Methodist Church of Ecuador, bought land and constructed a new facility, but it needed assistance to tie the new property to the municipal water system, a new sewage treatment system and sanitation facilities. 

Jhonny Cajia, the director of El Sembrador educational center, expressed thanks for the project’s completion and the new facilities but also for improving the quality of life for the students, faculty and families served by the school. “In the countryside, hygiene and health are often left out of planning. This project has helped us improve our health through the good use of water and through learning better hygiene habits.” 

Even on the hills of Cotopaxi, COVID-19 closed the schools for in-person learning, but soon, students will return to a brand new and fully-functioning school with bright new bathrooms. 

Many rural communities on the altiplano of Bolivia are without community water systems, though progress is being made. The Methodist Church of Bolivia teamed up with FIEA and Global Ministries last year to improve WASH for four churches in the high country, all serving Indigenous populations. 

Rider, age 23, has been a member of El Salvador Methodist Church in Kahuiza, Bolivia, for about seven years. “I come from a distant community, it takes about 20 minutes to go and come back from the church. During these years we didn’t have a bathroom for our needs, and we had to find ways to relieve ourselves. I had to find a place far from people, for example to the hill or in a field and it was quite difficult not to have a restroom in the church.” 

Churches are community gathering places for many in small rural villages. Having no or poor sanitation facilities on the property really made it difficult for people to participate in activities. The fact that most of the communities depend on farming for survival only multiplies the dangers of open defecation. Once the restrooms in the churches were completed, training about those dangers and the overall health benefits of good hygiene were held for members and the wider community. 

Some of the congregations even reported that once the restrooms were built, they saw new faces at the church services and lapsed members returning. With new restrooms, people are no longer hesitant to gather for important community occasions and events. “I’m happy to rely on an elegant restroom in good condition,” Rider affirmed. 

In total, Global Ministries granted more than $300,000 to FIEA for construction and community training, but the projects’ beneficiaries, with clean water and proper sanitation, number in the thousands. The health benefits will continue to be monitored and revealed for years to come. 

Consider a gift to Global Health to support the work of the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) program, Advance #3020600. 

Christie R. House is a consultant editor and writer with Global Ministries and UMCOR.

The post Building water resources in Ecuador and Bolivia appeared first on Global Ministries.

By Christie R. House 

March 18, 2021 | ATLANTA 

The people of Meehagahena Village in Kandy District, Sri Lanka, have longed for a way to get clean water and proper sanitation facilities to their homes. Their existing water system malfunctioned years ago. They expressed their concerns to their water management committee, the government and any humanitarian organization that would listen – but still, they waited. 

“My younger son would wake up early in the morning and take whatever pots and buckets he could carry to collect water from down the hill before he goes to school,” a resident explained. Most other households told a similar story. “Even after school,” the mother continued, “he would go down a second time to collect water for us. Both my husband and I are sick and are not steady on our feet. My elder son is paralyzed from the waist down.” 

Today, this family, who lives in Bettiyagoda, receives their water from a spigot right outside their door because of funding from the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) and the careful work of a faith-based Sri Lankan nongovernmental organization called Lanka Evangelical Alliance Development Services (LEADS). LEADS brought together community members to hear what they needed and the major challenges they perceived that kept them from reaching their goal. 

It wasn’t just the antiquated infrastructure or a lack of funding that kept the long-awaited clean water from flowing; there was also a people component. Members of the local water management committee had held their posts for many years and resisted change. Overcoming this resistance meant addressing the concerns of the committee members and mediating between them and the larger community. 

In a year’s time, despite additional challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic, 105 families (about 600 people) in Kandy District now have a source of clean water that pumps directly to their properties, 63 families that had poor or no sanitation facilities have received new ones and even the water management committee has been transformed with the appointment of its first female member. Through this project, the community experienced the benefits of participatory planning and has taken steps to improve community structures and representation.

World Water Day 2021 (March 22) celebrates the value of water around the world. Goal six of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals calls for water and sanitation for all people by 2030. While this may seem ambitious, many different contributors – faith-based, nongovernmental and governmental organizations – are working hard to bring water to places like Meehagahena Village. 

Global Ministries’ water, sanitation and hygiene projects (referred to as WASH) are funded and coordinated by both UMCOR and the Global Health unit. The projects cover a wide range of water and sanitation structures, types of facilities, and methods of finding and pumping water. The choice depends on the available resources and circumstance of the receiving community, including the resources and experience of the implementing partner. However, all projects are targeted to reach underserved and vulnerable communities based on need without regard for religion, race or nationality. 

Roland Fernandes, general secretary for Global Ministries and UMCOR, noted that grants in progress as well as new WASH grants proceeded even with uncertainties in access and supply. “Despite the challenge of the coronavirus pandemic, Global Ministries and UMCOR WASH projects completed in 2020 reached 190,000 people around the world. Twelve grants totaling $1,110,100 were awarded last year for projects in Asia, Latin America, Africa and the United States.” 

Some projects, as in Sri Lanka, help families directly, while others improve community health by addressing WASH concerns at hospitals, clinics and other health facilities. A project in Côte d’Ivoire improves the lives and health of children and their teachers by improving facilities at schools. 

In that case, UMCOR partnered with Reservoir de Siloe, the development and humanitarian nongovernmental organization of The United Methodist Church of Côte d’Ivoire (EMUCI), to improve WASH facilities in seven locations, reaching a total of 12 schools, from which community members now also benefit. 

Although Côte d’Ivoire’s national development plan aimed to reach 82.5% of the population with access to clean water by 2020, the actual rate reached 68%. Water infrastructure is one of the casualties of a civil war that lasted almost a decade. Drinking water production and supply facilities have deteriorated, especially in rural areas. In some communities, no facilities exist, so people use open defecation zones. 

About 51.5% of primary schools in Côte d’Ivoire have no latrines, while 58.9% have no clean water supply. Even among the 41 United Methodist schools, 50% lack appropriate WASH facilities. 

From the outset, NGO Reservoir de Siloe invited church, school and community leadership in the seven areas to participate in the initial decisions. Community involvement increased interest and enthusiasm for the project, despite barriers and challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In each of the primary schools, teachers formed hygiene clubs to help students understand the importance of handwashing, cleanliness and proper use of the new facilities. The project supplied teachers with training materials to design and develop lessons in health classes and health clubs going forward. 

Mondou Noel Yayo, the director of Yakassé-Me, one of the schools receiving latrines, expressed his thanks, saying: “Most children in this school have no knowledge of this kind of contemporary bathroom. They were all amazed. Children are proud to have these toilets in their schools. We can only thank all those who made this work possible.” 

One of his students added: “I thank UMCOR for the toilets they have made available for all our functional needs. And may God bless them and give them long life, health and wisdom.”

In recognition of World Water Day, consider a gift to make more WASH projects possible for the many communities that are still waiting for water.

Christie R. House is a consultant writer and editor with Global Ministries and UMCOR.

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