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End Water Scarcity for Families like Masha’s
Help Serve 277 People
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“A mother would do anything to keep her children safe; she would pay any sacrifice.” - Masha
Kokosa region, Ethiopia
- Story
- Kokosa, Ethiopia
- FAQ's
Your gift will provide clean water and improved health to families in the entire region of Kokosa, Ethiopia.
Life in Kokosa, Ethiopia
January 2021
In Kokosa, families are thirsty. The rural, remote region of Ethiopia is experiencing a severe water crisis. The average travel time for one container of water is over two hours long, and no one ever gets enough to drink.
Masha, her husband, and their seven children live in Tete Kura, a village in Kokosa. Masha and her husband, Gemeda, are hard workers. They always prioritize the children’s education and health, but unsafe water is a huge challenge.
Three times a day, Masha’s children gather water from a spring in the forest. The spring is muddy, polluted, and makes people sick.
“The suffering that results from unsafe water might be the same across the region, but it could not be as painful as what a mother feels [seeing it],” she said. “A mother would do anything to keep her children safe; she would pay any sacrifice.”
When the rains cease each year, the spring dries up almost completely.
“Water has the same value as milk during this time when it’s impossible to get enough drinking water in a day,” Masha said. “I wish to have clean and safe water at a close distance.”
Since there’s no water at school either, Masha’s children sometimes walk all the way home just to get a drink from the spring. When they do this, they miss valuable class time.
“If we get clean water, we won’t face anymore suffering due to illnesses caused from unsafe water, and my children will be able to attend their education without challenges,” she said.
“We could save our resources which we use mostly for medical fees when our children fall ill, and we will be able to provide our children with basic living necessities,” Masha added.
When you give, you bring safe water to families just like Masha’s in surrounding communities. You serve the region of Kokosa, Ethiopia, sending health experts to families, and constructing water sources built to last so children can live healthy lives.
About the Region
Kokosa, Ethiopia
Kokosa, Ethiopia is home to 122,811 people.
Lifewater began serving in Kokosa in 2015, taking on large clusters of communities at a time in designated Lifewater “projects.” Today, we are beginning programs in Kokosa Project 3, serving 10,677 people.
We can’t reach them without you.
In Kokosa, families live in traditional mud-thatches homes roofed with dried brush from the surrounding forest. A majority of families rely on agriculture for their annual income, and 53% of the population in project 3 have never gone to school.
Water usage is exceptionally low, with the average person using less than 5 liters of water per day. This is just one-fourth of the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended minimum quantity of water needed per day per person.
Gathering that minimal amount of water takes 2.25 hours a day, as women and children often travel to unprotected springs or rivers with long lines.
The contaminated water is dangerous for all in Kokosa, but particularly children under the age of five years old. When interviewed eight percent of children under the age of five experienced diarrhea—the second leading cause of death for young children—in the seven days prior to the survey.
The good news is, this is entirely preventable. Lifewater’s work in the surrounding area shows that diarrhea can be nearly eliminated with basic access to things like clean drinking water, proper sanitation, and washing hands with soap.
Children in Kokosa need your help. Give safe water to Kokosa today.
Your gift will help provide safe drinking water and improved sanitation and hygiene for the entire Kokosa program rather than one specific village, making it possible for Lifewater to reach this family as well as their neighbors.
Yes! You can expect regular updates on progress in the Kokosa 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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“We are confident Lifewater’s work will have life-sustaining impact.”
– Cary A. Paine, The Stewardship Foundation
Story
Your gift will provide clean water and improved health to families in the entire region of Kokosa, Ethiopia.
Life in Kokosa, Ethiopia
January 2021
In Kokosa, families are thirsty. The rural, remote region of Ethiopia is experiencing a severe water crisis. The average travel time for one container of water is over two hours long, and no one ever gets enough to drink.
Masha, her husband, and their seven children live in Tete Kura, a village in Kokosa. Masha and her husband, Gemeda, are hard workers. They always prioritize the children’s education and health, but unsafe water is a huge challenge.
Three times a day, Masha’s children gather water from a spring in the forest. The spring is muddy, polluted, and makes people sick.
“The suffering that results from unsafe water might be the same across the region, but it could not be as painful as what a mother feels [seeing it],” she said. “A mother would do anything to keep her children safe; she would pay any sacrifice.”
When the rains cease each year, the spring dries up almost completely.
“Water has the same value as milk during this time when it’s impossible to get enough drinking water in a day,” Masha said. “I wish to have clean and safe water at a close distance.”
Since there’s no water at school either, Masha’s children sometimes walk all the way home just to get a drink from the spring. When they do this, they miss valuable class time.
“If we get clean water, we won’t face anymore suffering due to illnesses caused from unsafe water, and my children will be able to attend their education without challenges,” she said.
“We could save our resources which we use mostly for medical fees when our children fall ill, and we will be able to provide our children with basic living necessities,” Masha added.
When you give, you bring safe water to families just like Masha’s in surrounding communities. You serve the region of Kokosa, Ethiopia, sending health experts to families, and constructing water sources built to last so children can live healthy lives.
Kokosa, Ethiopia
About the Region
Kokosa, Ethiopia
Kokosa, Ethiopia is home to 122,811 people.
Lifewater began serving in Kokosa in 2015, taking on large clusters of communities at a time in designated Lifewater “projects.” Today, we are beginning programs in Kokosa Project 3, serving 10,677 people.
We can’t reach them without you.
In Kokosa, families live in traditional mud-thatches homes roofed with dried brush from the surrounding forest. A majority of families rely on agriculture for their annual income, and 53% of the population in project 3 have never gone to school.
Water usage is exceptionally low, with the average person using less than 5 liters of water per day. This is just one-fourth of the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended minimum quantity of water needed per day per person.
Gathering that minimal amount of water takes 2.25 hours a day, as women and children often travel to unprotected springs or rivers with long lines.
The contaminated water is dangerous for all in Kokosa, but particularly children under the age of five years old. When interviewed eight percent of children under the age of five experienced diarrhea—the second leading cause of death for young children—in the seven days prior to the survey.
The good news is, this is entirely preventable. Lifewater’s work in the surrounding area shows that diarrhea can be nearly eliminated with basic access to things like clean drinking water, proper sanitation, and washing hands with soap.
Children in Kokosa need your help. Give safe water to Kokosa today.
FAQ's
Your gift will help provide safe drinking water and improved sanitation and hygiene for the entire Kokosa program rather than one specific village, making it possible for Lifewater to reach this family as well as their neighbors.
Yes! You can expect regular updates on progress in the Kokosa 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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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