Water is the source of life. But in too many countries, where women and children walk long distances to carry water from stagnant pools that may harbor disease, this necessity is out of reach.
Today, your compassion helps bring water to some of the world’s most impoverished places, including Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East.
Desperate choices where water is scarce
After eight years of a civil war that has forced thousands of people to flee their homes, Yemen’s already fragile economy collapsed, and many farmers had to leave their lands. Families now struggle to grow crops and pasture animals in dry, mountainous areas.
In these regions, women walking miles through rough, dusty terrain to fetch water may face threats or danger. Snipers may target them if the water source lies near battle lines. They may also be at risk of sexual harassment and abuse.
To keep family farms going or livestock watered, children may be pulled out of school to haul heavy loads of water. In communities already reeling from the war, water scarcity compounds families’ suffering.
Clean water, close to home
Thanks to your gifts, rainwater harvesting cisterns provide families with safe water near their homes.
Trained engineers led teams to dig the base, plaster the harvesting unit’s walls, and cast concrete roofs.
Your gifts also brought ceramic water filters to complement the rain harvesting units, ensuring the water drawn from the cisterns is safe to drink.
“The rainwater harvesting units are sustainable. They’re regularly maintained by the local people so that they’ll collect rainwater as long as possible. They’re also environmentally friendly,” says the project coordinator.
Your outpouring of generosity has provided clean, fresh water to people in parched lands, people who have endured years of chaos and suffering. With a sustainable supply of water for their families, livestock and crops, the people you have helped have one less challenge to face — and one more source of hope.
Sending kids back to school, not out for water: Yousef’s story
In his village in Yemen, 43-year-old Yousef was one of few people who had finished school. As a father of two, he wanted his children to have the same chance.
"My children had to provide water for our home,” he says, “and help me raise livestock to increase the family's income." At one point, his family had to move to be closer to a reliable water source, leaving both their home and school behind.
After your gifts helped build rainwater cisterns in the region, everything changed for Yousef’s family. "Now I can return to my home to settle,” says Yousef happily. “And I can guide my children to focus on their studies."