Going into very rural areas gave the Hope for Eternity team a deeper recognition of the extreme level of poverty and need in Ethiopia.
Rather than walk 2 hours to obtain water from a well in the nearest city, people in the rural areas use rivers, lakes, creeks, and dammed-up ravines and get water from there. This water is used for everything in the community: drinking, bathing, animals drinking, and washing clothes.
As a result, people here are sick with parasites, skin and eye diseases, and other water-borne illnesses and infections, but they have no other sustainable options for obtaining water. Hope for Eternity has partnered with the Welfare and Development wing of Addis Kidan and the Texas-based nonprofit, Water for All, to drill family water wells when that is possible. A much more economical solution is the purchase of Sawyer water filtration systems for home/church/community use. This system is designed to filter out all of the harmful pathogens and is guaranteed to function effectively for at least 100,000 gallons of water. We hope to be carrying some of the filtration kits over on each of our annual trips.