Restoring lives and revealing hope through the gift of life-giving water
Through the provision of clean water, you can make a transformational difference in the lives of people like Carole.
Meet Carole.
Carole lives in Houndaja, Benin. Before we installed a deep-capped well in her village, life was very different for Carole. The village’s only source of water was parasite-ridden.
We met Carole as she was pregnant with her third child. She had never been exposed to maternal health education nor met with a doctor in any of her previous pregnancies. Carole’s story is not unique. In fact, thousands of women are in similar situations as Carole. Statistically, 80% of women surveyed in Benin and Togo were aware of the regional health clinic near their village, but only 9% actually used it.1
33% of villagers also experience water-related diarrhea and 28% of children are stunted due to malabsorption of nutrients.
But now this has all changed.
Through a partnership between donors like you and the Government of Canada, our Maternal Newborn Child Health (MNCH) project started in 2016. When Carole and her community received the gift of safe water, not only were they given access to disease-free water, but following the installation of the well,
they also learned about accessing health units, the importance of hand washing and how it helps avoid sickness, understanding the danger signs during pregnancy, and so much more including nutrition and gender sensitivity training.
Additionally the staff from a nearby medical clinic also received training on the best practices of maternal health to better care for expectant mothers like Carole.
Many maternal complications are avoided by employing simple, proven and cost effective solutions, like access to safe water and health education in communities. Interventions like prenatal checkups can also greatly reduce maternal and newborn mortality.
“They taught us to keep things clean around the house; especially when a pregnant woman is around. It’s important to have very good hygiene practices,” shares Carole. “We learned that the father also has a role to play to take their wife to the hospital when pregnant, and how men need to be concerned about a woman’s pregnancy. W could’ve developed so much more if these principles were taught to us before. The teachings were so valuable. We’ve learned a lot.”
Since receiving the training, Carole experienced her very first prenatal checkup, accompanied by her husband.
“The clinic staff took care of me. I felt much better and safe about my pregnancy. There’s great significance for us women to be checked so that both my life and my baby’s life are cared for. My husband also changed in attitude as well. We used to fight all the time and now we’re getting along well.”
At the end of the first year of this project we want to report to you that
• 64 villages now have newly installed water wells
• 64,000 people now have life-giving access to clean water
• 11,160 men and women have received community health training
Now as the MNCH project enters into its second year of this four-year project, there’s even more villages with expectant mothers just like Carole who deserve the right to clean water, healthy pregnancies, healthier children and wholly-transformed communities.
However, the story does not end here.
While Carole’s story is about her family’s physical wellbeing, we believe that physical and spiritual lives are intertwined. When Carole’s community met Christians from a local church that, in partnership with GAiN, was both proclaiming and demonstrating the love of God, it greatly boosted the profile and credibility of the local church and enabled the wholeness of each person to thrive. Through GAiN, in a partnership with the JESUS Film Church Planting Strategy, individuals like Carole encounter God’s unconditional love for them and develop deep roots for their new faith in Jesus through the local church. Over 300 people saw the film and 27 people made a life-transforming decision to follow Christ in Carole’s village. Many are beginning to attend the local church. The impact is truly transformational.
How can you help?
By partnering with this initiative, your donation will help impact 60 more communities that we will impact in 2018.
You can help restore lives and revealing hope in Benin and Togo through the gift of life-giving water!
In this way your generous donation will provide safe water and maternal, newborn and child health education in a village as well as bring spiritual redemption to the lives of men, women and children.
Please join with us today to transform the lives of people in Benin and Togo. People like Carole.
1GAiN’s Water for Life Initiative baseline study (2015)
