Great news: Prayers have been answered in Africa!
Because of the compassion of Cross Catholic Outreach supporters, 145 wells are now delivering clean, refreshing water to families who used to rely on contaminated sources like rivers, streams and shallow wells.
But the support provided did more than quench physical thirst — it also provided spiritual refreshment. Our ministry partners (located in 13 regions across sub-Saharan Africa) have been faithfully sharing Christ’s love while meeting physical needs for water and health.
“I see the Church and am reminded that God has given us life; he’s given us water,” said Lucy, a widowed farmer in Kenya who used to walk two hours to reach the nearest water source. “We are very grateful, and our hearts are filled with joy.”
Please enjoy reading about three of our ministry partners drilling clean-water wells and sharing the hope of the Gospel in Malawi, Zambia and Kenya.
Founded by a Society of African Missionaries priest, Good Samaritan Water Sanitation Services provides water to poor rural communities in southern Kenya because it believes that’s the perfect way to share God’s love.
Our ministry partner works through local parishes, empowering priests to care for their communities by overseeing water projects and appointing village water committees. These water systems include professionally installed wells drilled and cased to a depth of at least 200 meters, solar pumps, elevated storage tanks and conveniently located distribution kiosks.
Many immediate benefits become apparent once communities gain access to clean water. Improved health and revived faith are often two of the first to reveal themselves because families have time to attend Mass regularly. Thanks to these efforts, new parishes are being opened due to the growing number of devoted Catholics and the need to make Masses and spiritual formation more accessible.
Another benefit is education — children, especially girls, have time to attend school and study. One of these girls is Gloria, who dreams of becoming a literature professor one day.
Gloria used to walk 15 kilometers (more than 9 miles) to fetch water for her family, a tiring journey that she often took after school. She had to hurry to return home before dark and was too exhausted to finish her homework by the time she got home.
But thanks to Cross Catholic Outreach supporters, Good Samaritan Water Sanitation Services has drilled a new well in her community! Now Gloria’s mother has the time to collect daily water, giving Gloria the time and energy to complete her homework with excellence.
She’s grateful for the blessing of clean water, which has done more than quench her thirst — it’s satisfying her hunger for learning! To express her gratitude, she wrote a poem titled “Water is Life.” One of the lines reads: “We won’t waste it. We’ll save it.”
Clean water has changed Gloria’s life! Now, she hopes for a brighter future since access to water no longer stands in the way of her education and dreams.
The Latin phrase Deus Providebit (God will provide) is painted outside the St. Joseph the Worker Cathedral in the Diocese of Karonga in Malawi — and Bishop Martin Anwel Mtumbuka takes this motto to heart. He has served as the bishop since Pope Benedict XVI established the Diocese of Karonga in 2010, and he firmly believes that giving to the less privileged is an act of faith. He grew up in a remote area and is dedicated to sharing Christ’s love in even the most difficult-to-reach villages.
“We need divine intervention and to allow God to work through us,” he said. “Surrendering to God means accepting it is his will for us to become instruments to solve the problems facing our brothers and sisters.”
Cross Catholic Outreach shares Bishop Martin’s heart for the poor. Since 2019, we have collaborated to empower his diocese’s most disadvantaged families and communities with life-changing interventions, such as providing clean water, health care, food, education, agricultural and economic development, and Catholic spiritual formation.
With the compassionate support of friends of Cross Catholic Outreach, the diocese has recently provided more families with clean water.
“The communities that are helped by this project are very needy families, and their lives are at risk if they don’t have clean water, so we are very grateful,” said Bishop Martin. “Many thanks to the families who helped us with the boreholes, and we pray that God blesses them.”
One of the people benefiting from the wells built by the diocese is Fannie, a mother and grandmother who depends on subsistence farming for survival. She used to walk a long distance each day to collect water, but with the new well in her community, those days are behind her.
“The new borehole is just next to my house, and it’s so easy. The community is very happy,” she said. “We have been liberated. I wasn’t even expecting something like this. And I thank God for delivering this to me.”
In Zambia, our ministry partner the Diocese of Chipata promotes “holistic human development, justice and integrity of creation for the less privileged in Eastern Zambia through community empowerment, capacity building, research, advocacy, conscientization, evangelization and solidarity with other organizations in order to create a society where good governance principles, human dignity, human rights and creation of nature are defended based on the Gospel and fundamental teachings of the Church for sustainable development.”
One important way Caritas Chipata is empowering Eastern Zambia’s underprivileged is by rescuing them from the cycle of thirst and illness by constructing reliable, professionally installed wells. Through this critical work, the ministry embodies God’s love for the poor and creates opportunities for families on the peripheries to encounter Christ in their lives.
“The Church believes that a human is actually body and spirit. So the Church believes that it is important to take care of the needs fully of the human being,” said Caritas Chipata Director John Zulu. “They say water is life, and indeed it is proving that water is life because we see the celebration when you give water to the people who were lacking water. And then we have heard people praising God. … At the end of the day, they have come to the realization that this is possible because of God’s love.”
Thanks to the generous support of Cross Catholic Outreach’s donors, clean, abundant water flows, upholding dignity and improving health in African communities! Each time families collect water at their local well, they are reminded of the Living Water, Jesus Christ, who quenches thirst for eternity.
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.
