South African Families Drink Clean Water for the First Time

Imagine walking for miles every day in scorching heat just to get clean water for drinking and cooking. This is reality for many men, women and children living in the remote villages of China, India, Nigeria and other nations around the world. Send a well drilling team to these poor areas by choosing Gift #9 from our Holiday Catalog.

See how the lives of three South African families were forever changed...

The Vumase, Gwala and Ngubane families all live in the Umbombo region of South Africa. As part of the Zulu people, they farm communal plots of land. Multiple generations live in each tiny home. For as long as they could remember this poor but hardworking community experienced frequent outbreaks of Cholera. Parents were horrified to find out the very water they were giving to their children was killing them.

It was the normal way of life for children and women to trek long distances to gather filthy water from pit wells. These same wells were nothing more than unprotected holes in the ground. It was easy for livestock to step into them and get a drink. The Zulu people had been unaware that they shouldn’t have been washing their clothes or taking baths in the same hole that they drank from. But they didn’t have an alternative. The city water trucks couldn’t get to them with drinking water; and even if they could the Zulu’s wouldn’t have been able to afford the service.

Representatives from Operation Blessing’s Living Waters program learned of the Zulu’s desperate need. We began digging clean water wells for the community. The Vumase, Gwala and Ngubane families excitedly drank the first cup of safe water from their individual wells in June. One family member commented, “Life is easier with the well right here and I have been able to help my neighbours with water as well.”

The benefits of these wells will last a lifetime! Now parents in the Umbombo region can give their children a cup of water without fearing for their lives. Families can grow larger gardens because the water is close by. A few people are even making building blocks from clay and water to sell and use. The new wells have changed the Zulu people’s way of life for the better.