Imagine an emergency room visit, paramedics carrying you through the doors. Or perhaps you are watching your loved one being whisked off into surgery.
Now imagine there is no water.
The surgeon can’t scrub up, the instruments can’t be washed, and recovery is slowed by constant dehydration. That is what medicine looks like when clean water is miles away. More than 500,000 babies die each year in the developing world for lack of clean water, and we know 20% would be saved from a simple bath!
As we approach our 10-year anniversary, we’re not just celebrating the first borehole we drilled in July 2008. We’re celebrating the heroes who have sacrificed it all to rebuild this nation. People like Dr. Timothy Isabu.
Dr. Isabu Greets Board Member, Amy Goddard
Dr. Isabu’s mother tongue isn't English or Juba-Arabic. It's Lingala and then French -- both unfamiliar languages in this region. For five years he's apologized for his English, but the truth is he does fine as he makes his daily rounds in the clinic ward, where their motto is “We Treat, God Heals."
Here he treats people suffering from malaria, typhoid, appendicitis, and labor complications that could take the lives of both mother and child. Here he teaches and encourages nurses, their very presence bringing hope and healing.
Dr. Isabu has not missed a day of rounds or surgery since he arrived just months before civil war broke out in 2013. Every 3 or 4 months he makes the long journey by bus and LEG2 (his two legs) across two border crossings to visit his wife and children back home in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
No one would blame him if he did not return, but he’s there every Monday morning making his rounds, checking the meds, saying a prayer, using what resources he has to save lives.
The one worry he has not had to carry? Water. You see, this clinic has an unlimited supply of clean water to ensure equipment is sterilized, medical staff and patients are clean, and medicines are swallowed with pure, life-giving water. Doctors cannot save lives without water, period.
The need for clean water in South Sudan is as urgent as it’s ever been. Our job is far from over.
Our local team is able and ready to restore one well every day, 365 days a year.
As we gear up for another decade of service, we invite you to invest in the lives of people like Dr. Isabu and his staff.
Over the last 10 years, we’ve brought water to more than 1,000,000 people. Help us bring water to another 1,000,000 people by making your gift today.
With gratitude,
Steve Roese
