Bring Safe Water to Senbete in Ethiopia

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“We don’t get back home on time, spending the time we should be working walking to the spring.” - Senbete

Ethiopia

GPS: 9.1450, 40.4897
  • Story
  • Ethiopia
  • FAQ's

Your gift will provide clean water and improved health to families in Ethiopia.

 

Life for Senbete in Kokosa, Ethiopia

January 2021

 

In Ethiopia, a third of the country is drinking contaminated water. It is estimated that 7.5 percent of the global water crisis is in Ethiopia alone. Children in this country are especially vulnerable to preventable waterborne diseases.

Every morning, either Senbete or one of her children picks up a water container and strides off in search of water. Their main source of water is a spring about 30 minutes away. But its water is contaminated, and too many people rely on it for water.

“We wait long hours for our turn to fetch water,” said Senbete. “We don’t get back home on time, spending the time we should be working walking to the spring.”

This impacts the education of Senbete’s children, as well as her and her husband’s ability to provide for their family. 

“My children arrive late to school and miss their classes,” said Senbete. “This has greatly impacted their academic performance.” 

In addition, waterborne diseases are costly to treat, sapping the income and resources of the families in Senbete’s district of Kokosa.

Like many families in Ethiopia, all Senbete’s family needs is clean water and sanitation training to thrive. Safe water and knowledge about hygiene can virtually eliminate waterborne diseases, allowing children to focus on their studies and parents to focus on moving forward.

“We dream for our children to reach a higher position and be able to help us in the future,” said Senbete.

When you give safe water, you reach families in Ethiopia just like Senbete’s. You give health, sanitation training, and hope to families who are desperate for something to change.

 

About Ethiopia

 

115 million people live in Ethiopia. A third of them are drinking contaminated water. It is estimated that 7.5% of the global water crisis is in Ethiopia alone.

This water crisis has consequences for everything from child mortality rates to agricultural outputs.

The majority of families Lifewater serves in Ethiopia rely on agriculture for their annual income.  In these rural areas, women and children may walk more than three hours a day to gather water from rivers or ponds animals also use.

Children miss days and weeks of school every year and mothers lose time they could have spent cooking or tending to their fields, all for contaminated water that makes them sick.

These water challenges create sanitation obstacles as well. Almost 1 in 4 people in Ethiopia do not have access to a toilet, so they go out in the open. This is a major public health crisis.

The good news is, this is entirely preventable. Lifewater’s work shows that waterborne illness can be nearly eliminated with basic access to things like clean drinking water, proper sanitation, and washing hands with soap.

Give safe water to Ethiopia today.

Am I sponsoring a specific village?

Your gift will help provide safe drinking water and improved sanitation and hygiene for the entire Dodola program rather than one specific village, making it possible for Lifewater to reach this family as well as their neighbors.

Will I receive updates?

Yes! You can expect regular updates on progress in the Dodola region. And, when the communities in the region are transformed with safe water, you’ll receive a story and photos from a family whose life is changed because of your gift.

Can I visit programs and/or my sponsored water project?

Lifewater has local staff that live and serve among the communities and schools where Lifewater works. Our staff know the language and the culture and are best equipped to serve communities. Because we seek to ensure sustainable water projects and community buy in, we do not allow donors to visit the projects they sponsor. However, we do commit to sending real-time updates, photos, and stories from the projects themselves.

Where does Lifewater work?

With more than 40 years’ experience, Lifewater is the longest-running Christian clean water charity in North America. Over those 40 years, Lifewater has worked in more than 45 different countries. Currently, our work is focused in Sub-Saharan Africa (Ethiopia, Uganda, and Tanzania) and Southeast Asia (Cambodia).

Why these countries and regions?

Lifewater identifies countries and regions that are unreached and underserved with basic water access and sanitation, which means we focus on areas where other organizations are not serving.

Although great strides have been made in the past 20 years to solve the global water crisis, remote and rural populations still remain unreached with adequate water and sanitation. These distant regions are difficult and often costly for governments and NGOs to serve well. Many of these communities feel as though they have been forgotten.

Can I request a water project in a specific country?

Currently, Lifewater has programs in Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, and Cambodia. You can go to lifewater.org/projects to select a specific water project to help. Because our programs are regionalized and made in partnership with the local governments, we are not able to take requests for specific water projects outside of our existing programs.

What percent of funds go towards programs?

Lifewater budgets 80% of expenditures for programs. The remaining 20% is split between administrative/management and fundraising expenses. This ratio is best in class for nonprofits and is why Lifewater has received the highest rating from Charity Navigator.

Administrative/management expenses are used to ensure that we are effective in managing the funds entrusted to us and include the following types of expenses: accounting personnel, leadership time, professional development of staff, external auditors, legal counsel, government registration expenses in every U.S. state, credit card fees for processing donations, bank fees, database maintenance, and office expenses.

Fundraising expenses generate the income needed to do the work that we set out to do. These include the cost of direct mail appeals and communication, marketing projects, donor relations personnel, and email communication systems. Last year, every dollar invested into Lifewater fundraising efforts resulted in $10 of donation for the organization.

Is Lifewater approved/vetted by 3rd party organizations?

Over our 40 year history, Lifewater has received the highest accreditations from the most respected rating organization in the industry. Lifewater is recognized as one of the top-rated charities in the United States by independent reporting organizations, including:

Charity Navigator (four stars)
Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA)
Guidestar (Platinum)
Great Nonprofits (five star)
Excellence in Giving
Learn more at https://lifewater.org/top-rated-charity.

How does Lifewater integrate faith into its work?

Lifewater’s work is founded on the belief that every person is made in the image of God. It is with this conviction that we seek out the globe’s most unreached, marginalized people groups in need of safe water.

Both nationally and internationally, 100 percent of our staff are Christians. These Christian staff help facilitate Lifewater’s Healthy Church strategy in communities. And, where there are no churches, we work with church planting partners to start new churches.

To create Healthy Churches, Lifewater first trains church leaders in foundational theology. These leaders are equipped with the basic story of the Christian faith and the biblical mandate to love others. Leaders learn that stopping the spread of disease and caring for the vulnerable aligns with our responsibility as Christians to love our neighbor.

Second, Lifewater ensures churches have safe bathrooms on their premises, handwashing stations, clean water nearby, and the education to promote health within their congregations. It’s imperative that churches are early adopters of healthy hygiene practices.

Third, Lifewater encourages churches to help vulnerable households become Healthy Homes. Church leaders undergo a training to become WASH (water access, sanitation, and hygiene) advocates in their communities. These advocates are encouraged to identify widows, child-headed households, the elderly, and the disabled to help them meet the health standards of Lifewater’s programs.

What is Lifewater’s process? What does the organization do, and how does it do it?

Lifewater’s Vision of a Healthy Village strategy is a relationship-first method. This model transforms entire regions house by house, village by village, and school by school. It is among the most intensive household-level work happening in the entire developing world and is closely tracked for progress, sustainability, and overall impact.

We construct custom-engineered safe water sources and teach life-saving health and sanitation practices in local villages and schools in need.

Story

Your gift will provide clean water and improved health to families in Ethiopia.

 

Life for Senbete in Kokosa, Ethiopia

January 2021

 

In Ethiopia, a third of the country is drinking contaminated water. It is estimated that 7.5 percent of the global water crisis is in Ethiopia alone. Children in this country are especially vulnerable to preventable waterborne diseases.

Every morning, either Senbete or one of her children picks up a water container and strides off in search of water. Their main source of water is a spring about 30 minutes away. But its water is contaminated, and too many people rely on it for water.

“We wait long hours for our turn to fetch water,” said Senbete. “We don’t get back home on time, spending the time we should be working walking to the spring.”

This impacts the education of Senbete’s children, as well as her and her husband’s ability to provide for their family. 

“My children arrive late to school and miss their classes,” said Senbete. “This has greatly impacted their academic performance.” 

In addition, waterborne diseases are costly to treat, sapping the income and resources of the families in Senbete’s district of Kokosa.

Like many families in Ethiopia, all Senbete’s family needs is clean water and sanitation training to thrive. Safe water and knowledge about hygiene can virtually eliminate waterborne diseases, allowing children to focus on their studies and parents to focus on moving forward.

“We dream for our children to reach a higher position and be able to help us in the future,” said Senbete.

When you give safe water, you reach families in Ethiopia just like Senbete’s. You give health, sanitation training, and hope to families who are desperate for something to change.

Ethiopia

 

About Ethiopia

 

115 million people live in Ethiopia. A third of them are drinking contaminated water. It is estimated that 7.5% of the global water crisis is in Ethiopia alone.

This water crisis has consequences for everything from child mortality rates to agricultural outputs.

The majority of families Lifewater serves in Ethiopia rely on agriculture for their annual income.  In these rural areas, women and children may walk more than three hours a day to gather water from rivers or ponds animals also use.

Children miss days and weeks of school every year and mothers lose time they could have spent cooking or tending to their fields, all for contaminated water that makes them sick.

These water challenges create sanitation obstacles as well. Almost 1 in 4 people in Ethiopia do not have access to a toilet, so they go out in the open. This is a major public health crisis.

The good news is, this is entirely preventable. Lifewater’s work shows that waterborne illness can be nearly eliminated with basic access to things like clean drinking water, proper sanitation, and washing hands with soap.

Give safe water to Ethiopia today.

FAQ's

Am I sponsoring a specific village?

Your gift will help provide safe drinking water and improved sanitation and hygiene for the entire Dodola program rather than one specific village, making it possible for Lifewater to reach this family as well as their neighbors.

Will I receive updates?

Yes! You can expect regular updates on progress in the Dodola region. And, when the communities in the region are transformed with safe water, you’ll receive a story and photos from a family whose life is changed because of your gift.

Can I visit programs and/or my sponsored water project?

Lifewater has local staff that live and serve among the communities and schools where Lifewater works. Our staff know the language and the culture and are best equipped to serve communities. Because we seek to ensure sustainable water projects and community buy in, we do not allow donors to visit the projects they sponsor. However, we do commit to sending real-time updates, photos, and stories from the projects themselves.

Where does Lifewater work?

With more than 40 years’ experience, Lifewater is the longest-running Christian clean water charity in North America. Over those 40 years, Lifewater has worked in more than 45 different countries. Currently, our work is focused in Sub-Saharan Africa (Ethiopia, Uganda, and Tanzania) and Southeast Asia (Cambodia).

Why these countries and regions?

Lifewater identifies countries and regions that are unreached and underserved with basic water access and sanitation, which means we focus on areas where other organizations are not serving.

Although great strides have been made in the past 20 years to solve the global water crisis, remote and rural populations still remain unreached with adequate water and sanitation. These distant regions are difficult and often costly for governments and NGOs to serve well. Many of these communities feel as though they have been forgotten.

Can I request a water project in a specific country?

Currently, Lifewater has programs in Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, and Cambodia. You can go to lifewater.org/projects to select a specific water project to help. Because our programs are regionalized and made in partnership with the local governments, we are not able to take requests for specific water projects outside of our existing programs.

What percent of funds go towards programs?

Lifewater budgets 80% of expenditures for programs. The remaining 20% is split between administrative/management and fundraising expenses. This ratio is best in class for nonprofits and is why Lifewater has received the highest rating from Charity Navigator.

Administrative/management expenses are used to ensure that we are effective in managing the funds entrusted to us and include the following types of expenses: accounting personnel, leadership time, professional development of staff, external auditors, legal counsel, government registration expenses in every U.S. state, credit card fees for processing donations, bank fees, database maintenance, and office expenses.

Fundraising expenses generate the income needed to do the work that we set out to do. These include the cost of direct mail appeals and communication, marketing projects, donor relations personnel, and email communication systems. Last year, every dollar invested into Lifewater fundraising efforts resulted in $10 of donation for the organization.

Is Lifewater approved/vetted by 3rd party organizations?

Over our 40 year history, Lifewater has received the highest accreditations from the most respected rating organization in the industry. Lifewater is recognized as one of the top-rated charities in the United States by independent reporting organizations, including:

Charity Navigator (four stars)
Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA)
Guidestar (Platinum)
Great Nonprofits (five star)
Excellence in Giving
Learn more at https://lifewater.org/top-rated-charity.

How does Lifewater integrate faith into its work?

Lifewater’s work is founded on the belief that every person is made in the image of God. It is with this conviction that we seek out the globe’s most unreached, marginalized people groups in need of safe water.

Both nationally and internationally, 100 percent of our staff are Christians. These Christian staff help facilitate Lifewater’s Healthy Church strategy in communities. And, where there are no churches, we work with church planting partners to start new churches.

To create Healthy Churches, Lifewater first trains church leaders in foundational theology. These leaders are equipped with the basic story of the Christian faith and the biblical mandate to love others. Leaders learn that stopping the spread of disease and caring for the vulnerable aligns with our responsibility as Christians to love our neighbor.

Second, Lifewater ensures churches have safe bathrooms on their premises, handwashing stations, clean water nearby, and the education to promote health within their congregations. It’s imperative that churches are early adopters of healthy hygiene practices.

Third, Lifewater encourages churches to help vulnerable households become Healthy Homes. Church leaders undergo a training to become WASH (water access, sanitation, and hygiene) advocates in their communities. These advocates are encouraged to identify widows, child-headed households, the elderly, and the disabled to help them meet the health standards of Lifewater’s programs.

What is Lifewater’s process? What does the organization do, and how does it do it?

Lifewater’s Vision of a Healthy Village strategy is a relationship-first method. This model transforms entire regions house by house, village by village, and school by school. It is among the most intensive household-level work happening in the entire developing world and is closely tracked for progress, sustainability, and overall impact.

We construct custom-engineered safe water sources and teach life-saving health and sanitation practices in local villages and schools in need.

Your gift reflects your trust in Lifewater International. We commit to honor your generosity by using your gift to help further the mission and vision of Lifewater International. Your donation is used by Lifewater International according to the project objectives to provide safe drinking water and improved sanitation and hygiene within the specified program area. Lifewater International is a charitable organization as described in 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, registered in the United States. All donations are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law.

Donations are non-refundable. Lifewater International will honor a donor’s request for any pre-approved program or project whenever possible. In rare occasions where this is not possible, gifts will be used where needed, in accordance with the organization’s charitable purpose. In accordance with this policy, donor’s explicitly release Lifewater International from further restriction on such funds.