"Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me." -Matthew 25:40
How much water do you consume daily? How much water are we "suppose" to consume daily? How easily is it for you to access clean water? How much water takes up our universe? How much water do you waste?
We don't even think about water as a privilege. Water is just given to us. At least we think so... All of you reading this are living in decent homes with water available to you 24/7. Hopefully you are paying your water bills, and you have access to clean water. You can bathe, you can drink, you can make foods, you can brush your teeth, and on and on the list goes with all we can do with water. Did you know that we are suppose to drink around 8 glasses of water a day to stay hydrated? That is about 1.9 liters of water our bodies should be consuming on a daily basis. Water makes up about 60 percent of our body weight. Every system in your body depends on water. water flushes toxins out of our bodies, water carries nutrients to your cells, water is what causes moistness in your ears for hearing, water causes us to stay hydrated, water causes us to breathe, water keeps our bodies functioning. Basically, we cannot live without water.
About 70 percent of our world is covered in WATER. There is roughly 326,000,000,000,000,000,000 gallons of water found on our planet. If we are suppose to drink something like 1.9 liters of water DAILY, where does the rest of this water go? Americans use close to (on average) 80 to 100 gallons of water a day. The average African uses about 1.5 liters of water a day. That is about .396 gallons a day. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? While we are using 80 to 100 gallons of water daily, Africans are not even having access to at least ONE GALLON OF WATER A DAY! How are we suppose to read about this and do nothing about it? We know what is going on and we do nothing about it. Time to step up. Make a difference. Make a change. Do something. Act.
Deuteronomy 15:11 says
"There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be open-handed toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land."
Remember, we are all living on THE SAME PLANET! We are all living on the same land. This our not our land. This is our God's land and he is calling on us to help others living on the same grounds.
This is happening all around the world and we are doing nothing about it. If we want water, we can get water within a matter of seconds. If Africans want water, they have to send their little ones miles and miles away to fetch water for their whole family. It may just be one gallon of water a day for the whole family. One gallon of water a day for one family. ONE GALLON. ONE FAMILY. Don't forget they also have to bathe, brush their teeth, wash their clothes, do everything we do in America. Just with less water. Oh and the water they are hiking miles to fetch is not fresh by any means. They are collecting their water from ponds, lakes, and what is close to being called a sewer. Their water is not crystal clear like we have over in America. Their water is brown, muddy, disease infested. One child dies every 15 seconds in Africa due to dirty water. Can you imagine dying from something as preventable as dirty water? We just do not see that happening over in the States. Imagine doing everything you need to do in a day with one gallon of water ..........to share with your whole family. Ok, thats nuts.
People on the same planet as us are DYING from not having enough water. You know how it feels to be dehydrated. Your mouth is all cotton-ish and sometimes its hard to breathe. Its not fun. Imagine being dehydrated your whole life. Not fun.
Darfur is just another story. There is a genocide going on in Darfur right now. I can't even wrap my mind around this. The people are killing each other. On top of this suffering, they do not even have clean water. This is not the only problem in Darfur either. This issue is only a small percentage of the things going wrong over there. I cannot raise awareness about everything. That is why this is so difficult. This is only ONE issue. ONE SMALL ISSUE. There are millions. But still, they have no access to clean water. They are afraid. Afraid to leave their homes to get water in fear they may be captured. caught. shot. raped. murdered. WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING! I can't even imagine how hard it may be for them to walk outside of their homes and be captured. captivated. murdered.
Again, how can we read about something and do nothing about it? How can we pretend that this is not going on? How can we go back to our normal lives, while others are dying? How can we drink water out of our faucets and how can we shower every day knowing that the Africans are suffering right now because they have no water? I know every single one of you reading this right now has access to one dollar. Did you know that one dollar can give a child in Africa clean water for a WEEK? I know that I have many family members and many friends who can afford to give to the poor and needy, the real question is who will actually do it?
Raise support.
Build wells.
Ensure clean water.
www.firstgiving.com/catherinelivesay
With love,
Catherine
