A Bold Vision for 2022: Help Living Water Project Double the Impact of $100,000 Corporate Gift

December 9, 2021

Dear Living Water Project Community,

As we experience all the blessings of this season of joy, peace and love, we reflect on a wonderful year for the Living Water Project. As board members, we feel privileged to help lead a community that cares deeply for the cause of clean water and believes in the power of partnership to change people’s lives for good.

Along with gratitude, we are excited for 2022 and working toward a bold vision for the future of this organization. At our board meeting on December 1, we identified specific projects in four countries that need wells drilled in early 2022. The people in these villages certainly need these wells, and our drilling partners are ready to drill—the ONLY limiting factor on how many get constructed is funding.

We are thrilled to announce that we have a huge jump-start on these projects: Our friends at Inflo Design Group, a Franklin, Tenn.-based engineering firm specializing in water resources, has pledged a generous corporate gift of $100,000.  

Emboldened by this incredible gift, we now challenge you and other benevolent companies like Inflo Design Group to DOUBLE this total in the remaining weeks of 2021. That could mean:

• Instead of 4 wells in Ghana with our ministry partner Paul Partey … We could drill 8!

• Instead of 7 wells in Chad and northern Cameroon with our ministry partner Samba Paul … We could drill 14!

• Instead of 3 wells in Liberia with our ministry partner Alfred Beyan … We could drill 6!

• Instead of 4 wells in Senegal with our ministry partner Final Command Ministries … We could drill 8!

In human terms, instead of 10,000 people helped by clean water projects, we could change the lives of close to 20,000 people! It’s an ambitious but attainable goal that we know we can reach with your assistance.

Please consider how you can contribute to help us DOUBLE the impact of this $100,000 gift. Whether you give $10, $100, $1,000 or more, we assure you that your year-end gift will not stay in the bank: Your donations will go directly—and speedily—to the cause of clean water. Thank you for donating today at this link.

Sincerely,
The Living Water Project Board of Directors

'Sacred Experiences' in Guatemala and Mali

The Living Water Project helped in the planning, design, funding and construction of a new drinking water system for the community of Los Limones, Guatemala. We were honored to work with our incredible partners at Lipscomb University's Peugeot Center and with Adicay, a nonprofit organization focused on the economic development of Guatemala's rural communities. Look out for future posts to learn more about this wide-ranging—and life-saving—project.

In September, Board members Jon Lee and Kevin Colvett visited four villages in Mali where the Living Water Project has funded wells. Each village—Soukoun, Sanou and Kamale—greeted them with a celebration, ceremony and even traditional tribal dancing. "It's a blessing to have these sacred experiences," Jon says.

We recently received the following letter from our partner in Mali:

“We do appreciate your efforts for both the  past and the present wells approved for this nation. We believe that it won't be only for the sake of clean water, but to also save as a living water to flow in their lives. We are grateful my brother. A big thanks to the entire leadership team.”

Blessings,
Augustine Kawa

See our posts on Instagram and Facebook to see photos from Guatemala and Mali of smiling faces blessed by clean water.

'Zonuts for Zambia' Fall Fundraiser Raises More Than $43k

Living Water Project’s Fall "Zonuts for Zambia" Fundraiser on August 28 was a great success—and a delicious one at that! The come-and-go breakfast event featured Zambian-style doughnuts and coffee served outdoors at the Otter Creek Church pavilion. A special program and video highlighted our current and future projects with our longstanding Zambian partners, Shadreck and the Zambia Mission Fund team.

The pledges keep rolling in, but the event raised more than $43,000 for worldwide projects!

Water scarcity affects nearly 2/3 of the global population, but these problems are solvable with your help! Thank you for your support of this event and all our projects throughout the year.

New Video Spotlights LWP’s History in Zambia

You won't want to miss our new video spotlighting our decade of work in Zambia. LWP board member and water engineer Kevin Colvett details the demographics and current issues in Zambia that are causing a great need for clean water. He also introduces our longtime partners, explains the projects we’ve done thus far, and outlines our hopes and dreams for future projects there.

To see the YouTube video, visit https://youtu.be/-KRtVp6ZTns. Please donate to our work in Zambia and other countries at www.livingwaterwells.org/donate.

How to Become a Monthly Donor—And Why It Helps

Ever wonder why organizations encourage people to become monthly donors?

Monthly donors add stability to a charity's work and allow for more tactical planning. For the Living Water Project in particular, having funds available at the right time makes such a difference. Many of the countries where we fund projects have a rainy season when wells cannot be dug, but as soon as the rainy season is over, it’s helpful for those funds to be at the ready!

These regular funds also allow us to plan further in advance, a helpful strategy for an all-volunteer organization like ours. If we know we can depend on a certain amount of resources each month, we can let our partners on the ground know when to expect a well project can start.

It's easy to become a monthly LWP donor. Check out our Donate page.

In Loving Memory: Our Memorial Well Program

In February 2020, a new Living Water Project well at the Trawa School in Ghana was dedicated in memory of Andrew Rieder, who passed away in 2013. (Though the children look very serious in this picture, board members Jon Lee and Kevin Colvett assure us that they saw many smiling faces when they visited the site in March 2019!)

In the past few years, the Rieder family has funded several wells in Andrew’s honor through the Living Water Project’s Memorial Well Program. We are humbled by their gifts.

Families like the Rieders find that funding the construction of a well project is a unique and meaningful way to honor the memory of a loved one who has passed, while also having a tangible, long-term impact on people who need clean water.

The Memorial Well Program offers families flexibility and creativity in bestowing their gifts. Sometimes families give a single gift that is sufficient to cover the cost of a well. Other times families encourage their community to make gifts to the Living Water Project “in lieu of flowers” for their loved ones.

Once funds have been raised, Living Water team members, consulting with the family, find an upcoming water project that is a good fit. When the memorial well is completed and water is flowing, Living Water sends the family several photos of the well and a report along with its location.

The Memorial Well Program is a great example of how the Living Water Project works in collaboration with donors, in-country partners, board members and drillers to bring clean water to those who need it. And it’s such a beautiful tribute to someone’s memory—making love manifest in the form of clean water.

Interested in learning more? We are happy to talk you through the possibilities. Please contact us through this link.

LWP Passes the $2 Million Funding Milestone

We are proud to announce that last week the LWP surpassed the $2 million funding mark since we began 20 years ago! Those donations have spearheaded hundreds of well projects in 26 countries—and changed the lives of many, many thousands of people. We are amazed by all of our wonderful supporters ... and wanted to share this incredible milestone with you.

Living Water Project's 20th Anniversary Celebration Surpasses Goal, Raises Over $47k

We extend our gratitude to those who attended our 20th Anniversary Celebration and Water Walk on March 28, and to those who cheered us on from afar. Because of you:

• We celebrated our 20-year history

• We imagined the walk of thousands who struggle daily to find clean water

• We honored our in-country partners around the globe as well as our sustainers and donors here at home

• We surpassed our $20k fundraising goal, unlocking a $20k matching donation, bringing the total up to $47,930!

Because of you, even more clean water projects will become a reality. The board approved eight new water projects and 12 well rehabilitations at the April 2021 board meeting:

• 3 wells in Liberia

• 3 wells in Ghana

• 1 project in Malawi (Blessings Hospital)

• 1 project in Honduras (Little Hands Big Heart)

• 12 rehabs in Zambia

We are grateful and humbled by your partnership in this work!

Well Dedicated in Nankpua, Liberia, Has Immediate Impact

These photos from last Wednesday's well dedication ceremony in Nankpua, Liberia, are powerful illustrations of the immediate impact of a well.

The first photo shows our on-ground partner in Liberia, Alfred Beyan, in the blue shirt on the left shaking hands with a community leader. The second photo shows a villager's water bucket being filled by the new well. The third photo depicts the previous source from which the citizens of Nankpua used to draw water.