Delivering food, shelter, and hope to the poorest of the poor
Water for Life
Select a donation amount & frequency:
Kenyans Are in Desperate Need of Your Help
Nearly one-third of all Kenyans — more than 17 million people — lack access to safe, adequate water sources. How do they survive now? Many must walk miles to muddy streams or primitive hand-dug wells to quench their thirst. Women and children rise before dawn and brave many dangers to get this water, and what they collect is often contaminated.
Painful waterborne diseases such as diarrhea and bilharzia maintain a near-constant presence in their lives. With so many hardships, it is no wonder that some struggle to understand Christ as their Living Water.
Transform Lives with Clean Water
Cross Catholic Outreach is working with Father Fabian Hevi, a long-standing partner in Kenya, to meet the urgent water needs of 10 dry communities that lie between the Diocese of Machakos and Archdiocese of Mombasa in southern Kenya.
With your support, we can provide safe, clean water for 69,077 people and forever transform their lives!
Philomena Wanza, 15, fills her bucket at a shallow ground hole in a dry riverbed. She and other villagers in Mokine walk nearly two miles to collect this muddy water.
Poverty, Health and the Water Crisis in Kenya
Securing basic human necessities should never cost a family their health and safety, but tragically, such challenges are common for many poor villagers who dwell in southern Kenya. Each day, women like Gladys Mghoi and Joyce Shuaka risk their lives to reach the nearest water source. Your generous compassion will bring hope and new life to villagers like these.
Gladys and her grandchildren often spend their whole morning collecting water.
A Grandmother’s Fight for Water
Gladys Mghoi is helping raise her 13 grandchildren in Mokine, a small village situated in the Archdiocese of Mombasa. Every morning, her family risks their safety to collect water from a distant riverbed, and her grandchildren often miss school as a result.
Gladys Mghoi is helping to raise her 13 grandchildren in Mokine, a small village situated in the Archdiocese of Mombasa. Every morning, she wakes up at around 4 a.m. to start collecting water for the day.
To quench the thirst of her grandchildren, Gladys must walk nearly 2 miles to a dry riverbed, where villagers dig a hole and wait painstakingly for muddy water to seep up from the ground. Because of Gladys’ age and health, her older grandchildren usually assist with this exhausting process — often missing school or arriving late to class as a result. They also face physical dangers, such as assault and attacks from wild animals.
“It is not very safe for me as an elderly person,” Gladys says, “and so, since there is no alternative, we have to risk our lives.”
About 32% of Kenyans do not have access to improved water sources.
More than 36% of Kenyans live on less than $1.90 a day.
A Mother’s Difficult Journey
Every day, Joyce Shuaka treks more than 12 miles to reach a polluted lake — the closest water source to her village of Orkung’u. The water she carries home for her four children is riddled with bacteria and parasites, but she has no other option for quenching their thirst.
Joyce walks more than 12 miles to reach the nearest source of water in Orkung’u.
Joyce Shuaka, a hardworking mother of four, must walk to Lake Jipe and collect water each day — a journey of more than 12 miles. It is the nearest water source to Joyce’s village of Orkung’u in the Diocese of Machakos.
Unfortunately, Lake Jipe is grossly contaminated, and Joyce’s neighbors frequently contract bilharzia and other diseases from drinking its water. Joyce’s family is risking their health in order to quench their thirst, and her children are also risking their education. Often, they miss school in order to help their mother carry her heavy jerricans home.
“I normally pray and ask God to give us water, benefactors who are going to assist us in order to give us good health and safe water for drinking, and for our children at least to have a better life,” Joyce reveals. “Without water, there’s nothing we can do — so water is life for us.”
Forty-one percent of Kenyan children under 5 are anemic due to vitamin and mineral deficiencies — conditions worsened by frequent bouts of bacterial diarrhea and other waterborne diseases.
The Plan for Transformation
Sustainable Water Solutions to Change Lives Forever
Your generous support can drill deep wells and install clean water systems that will bless families in need. Working together as the Church, we can heal communities that frequently battle drought and waterborne illness — and we can also provide a tangible reminder of the Living Water that is available to us in Christ!
A Mission for Life
The Society of African Missionaries first sent Father Fabian to Kenya in 2002, and it was there that he discovered one of his life’s greatest callings: bringing water to needy villagers.
Our Strategic Partner
Founded by Fr. Fabian and centered on the teachings of Christ, Good Samaritan Water Sanitation Services has a proven track record of bringing clean water to communities in need.
Holistic Transformation
Improved health, school attendance, agriculture, building projects and spiritual hope all flow from access to clean water.
A Mission for Life
Fr. Fabian’s calling to share Christ through water
Originally from Ghana, Fr. Fabian has served in Kenya for more than 18 years, and since 2013, his primary focus has been providing reliable sources of water for communities that have none.
This devoted priest bases his ministry on two primary passages of Scripture: the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 and the story of the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4. In that story, Jesus asks the woman for a drink — and then makes her an offer of Living Water. As we read in the Catechism, “God thirsts that we may thirst for him.” (CCC, 2560).
According to Fr. Fabian, meeting a community’s most critical need — water — is the perfect way to share the love of God. He works through local parishes, empowering priests to care for their communities by overseeing water projects and appointing village water committees. In this way, many villagers experience a deeper understanding of the abundant life that is available to them in Christ.
Our Strategic Partner
Good Samaritan Water Sanitation Services
Over the course of six years, Fr. Fabian collaborated with Cross Catholic Outreach to complete water relief projects for 83,000 people in 27 villages throughout the northwestern Diocese of Lodwar.
In 2018, he launched his nonprofit, Good Samaritan Water Sanitation Services, so that he could share the same blessing in any diocese that had a need.
With funding from donors like you, the organization has already brought clean water, proper sanitation and hygiene education to 50,724 people in six communities that lie between the Diocese of Machakos and Archdiocese of Mombasa.
Its methods have been proven to provide sustainable water solutions, as well as follow-up training that improves community health and helps villagers transform their lives.
Holistic Transformation
Blessings flow when families gain access to clean water
Right now, families’ lives are consumed with the constant search for water and the consequences of drinking from contaminated sources. By giving them a reliable water supply, we can give them their time back and foster holistic transformation in their villages. Water changes everything.
Health
Clean water systems protect families against waterborne diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, typhoid and bilharzia.
Education
Children no longer miss school to search for water, and with improved health, they are better able to focus on their studies.
Agriculture
With clean water for their crops and livestock, farming families can improve their food security.
Community Development
Construction projects, such as repairing crumbling homes, become possible once communities have water for cement-making, etc.
Spiritual Formation
Families have more time to participate in parish activities, and their faith is refreshed by God’s answer to their prayers for water.
The Process of Reaching Water
Give the Gift of Water
There are several important steps taken to guarantee the quality and longevity of the water systems. Drilled deep into the earth (to around 200 meters), the boreholes reach into the clean, abundant water table. Such measures ensure that the water systems will endure through seasons of drought and bless their communities for generations to come.
- Contract trusted drilling company Geotronics Engineering Ltd. for project.
- Conduct a hydrogeological survey/determine best location for drilling. Case/drill borehole. Conduct pump and water quality tests to confirm the quantity and quality.
- Install additional components: elevated water storage tanks, solar panels and water kiosk.
- Train water committee members on borehole maintenance and sanitation. Provide community training on water, sanitation, hygiene and agriculture.
Provide Water for Life
Answer Kenya’s cries for safe water — and forever transform lives in the process. By providing clean water systems, you will end families’ painful battle with waterborne infections. You will enhance food security by bolstering agriculture. You will give villagers more time to attend school and church. Through your generosity, the gift of water can bring restoration and spiritual refreshment to entire communities.
Water for Life Sponsor
$20,065 will provide clean water for 1,650 villagers
Water for Life Sponsor – $20,065 will provide clean water for 1,650 villagers
Abundant Water Sponsor
$10,032 will provide clean water for 825 villagers
Abundant Water Sponsor – $10,032 will provide clean water for 825 villagers
Wells of Salvation Sponsor
$5,107 will provide clean water for 420 villagers
Wells of Salvation Sponsor – $5,107 will provide clean water for 420 villagers
Living Water Sponsor
$2,554 will provide clean water for 210 villagers
Living Water Sponsor – $2,554 will provide clean water for 210 villagers
Give now to share clean water — and the Living Water of Jesus Christ — with our brothers and sisters in dire need.
Join Our Newsletter
You Are in Our Prayers
Cross Catholic Outreach’s staff prays daily for friends of the ministry.
Click below to submit your prayer intentions.
Answer the Call
Learn how you can engage in projects serving the poor and their communities around the world.
Cross Catholic Outreach
Our mission is to mobilize the global Catholic Church to transform the poor and their communities materially and spiritually for the glory of Jesus Christ. Your gift empowers us to serve the poorest of the poor by channeling life-changing aid through an international network of dioceses, parishes and Catholic missionaries. This cost-effective approach helps break the cycle of poverty and advance Catholic evangelization.
Get the latest news and updates on how we’re transforming the poor and their communities.
Proceeds from this campaign will be used to cover any expenditures incurred through June 30, 2021, the close of our ministry’s new 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.
