Clean water for Milawi

By Yme Woensdregt

There was a deluge of clean water at Christ Church, Cranbrook — but not because of the winter storms. Let me share this very good news story with you.

A year ago, we had a visit from Father Raphael Mponda, the Anglican priest in Blantyre in southern Malawi. He told us stories about the desperate poverty his people are suffering there, and particularly of a project he had initiated to develop inexpensive water filters to provide clean drinking water. Several people in the community were moved to contribute at the time.


TURNING ON THE TAPS — Water filters purchased by Sunday school children from Christ Church, Cranbrook.

We shared the story of the water filters with the Sunday school, and the children eagerly adopted this as a project for Advent. Each filter costs $36. Originally, the children wanted to set a goal of 80 filters, to match their success last year (when they raised enough funds through the congregation and community to buy 86 goats at $30 a piece). The Sunday school teachers, however, knew better, and encouraged the children to set a goal of 25 filters.

At the beginning of Advent, the kids began their efforts. They kept the project in front of the parish, reporting on how many filters were being purchased. They encouraged me to write a column in the town's newspaper, which garnered gifts of money from the wider community, and beyond. They brought their own gifts of money and raised funds in a variety of different ways. They posted pictures of children in Father Raph's parish, who often had to walk several miles to haul dirty water from the river, carry it home, and boil it so it was fit to drink.

Their enthusiasm was contagious, and the rest of the congregation soon caught the bug. Purchasing water filters became a way of practicing "alternative giving." The church provided gift cards, to let recipients know that a water filter was purchased in their name. As parish members got excited about it, they told their friends, who came in to the church office and wanted to be part of this project. The children gave us a wonderful gift this Advent. It taught us all something about the value of generosity and caring for others.

The final total? Well, that deluge of clean water at Christ Church was because we raised just under $5000 to donate 136 water filters for the poorest of the poor in southern Malawi.


MUDDY WATER — Children from southern Malawi collecting water from a muddy pool.