I Didn't Even Think About Clean Water

Today my son lacerated his foot on a nail from my deck of my house. It was a pretty nasty cut and I could tell it needed stitches as I went for clean water, hydrogen peroxide and tissue. As I drove him to the hospital which is about a 15 minute drive, he was experiencing some pain however, it wasn't anything that my strapping 18 year old son couldn't handle. We arrived at the hospital and was seen within a decent time frame and saw all the appropriate doctors, assistants, x-ray technicians and billing all while we both finished our Dasani bottled water.

AND then suddenly there it was.

What began to stand out for me most was one simple word - water.

Even though I had cleaned my sons foot, the doctor took sterile water, flushed the wound and then flushed it some more with that precious commodity - water. Then it dawned on me how many places across the world cannot rely on clean water, not only for sterilization of a wound but for simply drinking and because of that many were suffering from illness.

Here is a quote from an article on www.dailymail.co.uk:

Dirty water is killing the people: 1,123 have died so far and 21,000 have been infected, the United Nations has said.
At one cemetery in Harare, the gravediggers are burying 31 child cholera victims every week. In a chilling prediction, the UN says that 60,000 people may lose their lives before it is all over.

Startling numbers that caused me to stop in my tracks and recap my day. I bathed, without having to walk 3 hours both ways. I drank clean and refreshing water without a second thought. And most importantly, my son received the medical care he needed that first involved...clean water.

So what are we to do...

A man by the name of Kodjo came to our church to talk about his dream of wells and latrines for his village in Togo. A dream of clean water... A dream that should be a reality for every person in every part of the world. No child should have to sacrifice whether they are going to school one day because they have to walk so long just to take a bath. No child should become a victim of deadly diseases all because they don't have clean water within their reach.

That line - "Dirty water is killing people" should haunt our minds daily and cause us to want to make a difference. But how? And to be perfectly honest, I don't know how, its a new train of thought for me...for many of us...but I believe we begin by asking questions like:

How can I stop wasting water?
How can I give to local organizations to help persons that are in need?
How can I find out more about places that are in need?

I don't have the answers but I'm willing to discover more and begin to think of every aspect of my life that may need to be re-evaluated because if I'm honest, before today, I didn't even think about clean water - for everyone. However, that is what all of us deserve, at the very least.

Blessings and remember
I AM YOU AS YOU ARE ME




Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1099467/Mugabes-genocide-The-images-despair-reveal-horror-Zimbabwe.html?ITO=1490#ixzz0m3Xb4ls9