A year ago on the United Nations’ World Water Day, we at Bread and Water for Africa® were making plans on bringing safe, clean water to the residents of the small village of Nafami in Sierra Leone where 300 students attending the primary school and 1,000 more residents in the surrounding community had none.
Today March 22, thanks to our supporters, these students and the residents of the village have access to all the water they need from a well dug on the school grounds providing them with a reliable source of uncontaminated water so that they are no longer risking illness, or even death, every time they take a sip.
This year’s World Water Day theme is “Leaving no one behind” and at Bread and Water for Africa® that’s exactly what we are doing for the residents of the small impoverished rural communities in Sierra Leone such as Nafami, in Ethiopia and elsewhere.
This year, our goal is to do the same for thousands in Kenema. Although it is not a small rural village, it is the second-largest city in Sierra Leone with a population of more than 200,000 people the residents there have the same critical need.
It is hard for Americans to comprehend the fact that in an urban area of that size there is a large percentage of people who do not have running water – but the sad fact is that it is true, we have seen it firsthand on our visits there in the past few years.
Today, on World Water Day, we are asking for you help to “leave no one behind” when it comes to having access to safe drinking water.
Everyone, whether they live in the most rural regions of the impoverished country, or in the slums of its second-largest city, clean water should not be a “luxury” that many cannot afford, but a readily-available basic necessity of life.
Next year on World Water Day, as we are doing today, with your help we will be once again be able to be pleased to report that thousands more Sierra Leoneans now have the water they need not just to stay healthy, but even simply survive.
