Across Africa, ministry partners of Cross Catholic Outreach have been hard at work developing projects that support the health and well-being of impoverished communities. Focused particularly on providing safe water access, which in turn supports education and restores good physical health, the ministries have devoted themselves to the people around them. Thanks to the kindness of thoughtful donors, progress in these communities has already begun to transform families’ day-to-day lives.
In many regions, access to water is limited by physical distance or seasonal weather. The water families can reach, and are forced to rely on, is often dirty. Beyond the immediate and obvious need for clean water, consuming unsafe water poses additional dangers. Contaminated drinking water carries the risk of disease, keeping communities trapped in continuous illness.
In the countries blessed by our recent Water for Life campaign, however, improved water access is mending community health, and our ministry partners are going above and beyond to support that progress. In Malawi, for example, Kopakopa Health Clinic provides medical aid through mobile clinics, distributing medical supplies and treating local patients. Thanks to the generosity of donors, a maternity building and staff house are currently under construction, increasing the clinic’s ability to care for those in need.
For years, Joyce has watched her community in Zambia suffer from ongoing dangerous water quality. Wracked by illness due to unsanitary conditions, families did what they could to find clean water within an accessible distance. They often sourced from a heavily contaminated river nearby.
“We shared it with the animals, so that to secure a bucket of relatively clear water, women had to wake up in the dark of the early morning,” Joyce said, describing the water as thick and dirty. Not far from where she would visit the river to collect drinking water, others were using it to bathe and launder clothes, even as livestock drank from and stood in the same stream.
Now her life has changed for the better. Joyce walks just a few minutes to reach the borehole, which flows with clean, clear, abundant water. Neighbors often gather at the site, creating a peaceful meeting place. Their troublesome chore has become a cause for celebration.
“How happy I am!” Joyce exclaimed.
With their material needs better met through the Water for Life campaign, roughly 600,000 people can soon focus their attention on building relationships with one another and with God. When so much time must be spent on mere survival — hours each day just to collect a basic resource like water — spiritual development takes a backseat for many families. Now that they’ve been freed from that worry, they finally have time and energy to invest in ministries that offer formation and prayer. Physically, emotionally and spiritually, easy access to safe water is changing entire communities in an extremely beautiful way!
Taking up the call to be Christ’s hands and feet in the world means counting strangers as neighbors, offering a helping hand, and hoping to make a difference. Thanks to Catholics committed to serving those in need, lives have been transformed. The ripple effect of donors’ generosity can be seen around the world, driving change that will benefit generations to come.
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.
