It is simple to fulfill the Corporal Work of Mercy “give drink to the thirsty” in our homes and neighborhoods, but in rural Africa, achieving that act of mercy is much more challenging. In fact, it takes the Church coming together in mercy and love to make that blessing a reality.
That’s because families in remote villages live in places with little infrastructure and rarely have access to any modern conveniences. In those locations, women and girls have no tap in their homes, so they must endure long walks each day to collect their daily supply of water from contaminated rivers and hand-dug pits. Delivering them even a full barrel of clean water would be a wonderful deed, but it would not relieve the enduring hardships they face. They need a long-term solution to water scarcity in their communities, but they have no way to fund that kind of project.
Tumse knows this suffering all too well. Without complaint, this loving grandmother has been making up to five trips each day to the Chilonga River since she was 5 years old. Her knees are swollen and painful from years of enduring these treks, but her family needs this water to survive.
Tragically, the water Tumse’s family relies on magnifies her suffering because it is heavily polluted with elephant dung from a wildlife preserve and fertilizer chemicals dumped in the river by commercial rice plantations. Women and girls attempt to reduce the contaminants by digging into the mud and allowing water to filter upward, but the water they draw is still filthy and sour smelling.
Collecting this contaminated water is just half the battle. Once she has what she needs, Tumse must journey home, which begins with a treacherous climb up a steep embankment with a heavy bucket balanced on her head. Then, it’s time to boil the water and cool it. Sometimes, family members are so thirsty they cannot wait, and children often drink straight from the polluted river.
And there is one more daily heartache in her life. Tumse is a grandmother of seven boys and prays for a granddaughter to join the family one day — but not yet. Not when she knows the lifelong hardships girls face when there is no clean water.
By coming together as the Body of Christ, we can end this hardship for women like Tumse in the heart of Africa. Cross Catholic Outreach is joining with our ministry partners in Africa to build reliable wells that will give drink to the thirsty in five African countries — today and for many years to come!
Since 2003, Cross Catholic Outreach has empowered life-changing poverty relief efforts in Africa, and over the past eight years, our ministry has successfully implemented water and sanitation projects in eight sub-Saharan nations. These missions of mercy have been so successful at transforming hearts and communities that we are now embarking on an even larger water campaign. Our Water for Life program will provide 238,903 people with a lifetime supply of clean water along with other life-changing interventions to bless families in body, mind and spirit.
Throughout the Lenten season, U.S. parishes, schools, groups, families and individuals will be participating in this outreach to build a brighter future for struggling communities. And there is still plenty of time for you to join this important cause and make a difference!
By engaging your parish in the Water for Life campaign, you will enable precious people like Patricia to enjoy a basic necessity of life — clean, safe water. As this girl in rural Malawi scooped her family’s drinking water from a small, muddy stream, she asked us a simple question that broke our hearts: “Do children in America also collect water from rivers and streams?” Surely, she thought, children everywhere must face this daily chore.
Just as many of us can’t imagine drinking water from this dirty stream, Patricia cannot yet fathom what life would be like with easy access to safe, clean water. With your help, Patricia and many other girls in sub-Saharan Africa won’t have to imagine it — they’ll be living a bold new reality where clean water is readily available in their communities.
With support from U.S. Catholics, our Catholic ministry partners will install 145 community water systems tailored to local needs in Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi and Zambia. The water systems will range from low-maintenance handpump boreholes to solar water systems with elephant-resistant elevated storage tanks. This outreach will also help build a rural health center, offer mobile medical clinics, provide medical supplies, construct latrines, provide Bibles and catechism books, and support prayer and Bible study workshops.
We will provide your parish with free materials, such as a kickoff letter, poster, bulletin insert, social media kit and Lent activity guide, to help your families put their faith into action this Lenten season.
Donations from this campaign will be used to cover any expenditures for this project incurred through June 30, 2027, the close of our ministry’s fiscal year. In the event that more funds are raised than needed to fully fund the project, the excess funds, if any, will be used to meet the most urgent needs of the ministry.
