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Water Crisis
Imagine waking up in South Sudan before Sunrise, dressing yourself and putting on a worn out pair of sandals. You then grab your jerry can, exit your small village, and begin walking down a dirt road for five miles--alone--to the water spring. After over an hour of walking you arrive at a small path between grass, bushes and branches which leads to the spring. Upon arrival you fill your jerry can with dirty, dark gray water from the spring. You then begin your several hour walk back home with your full, and extremely heavy, water supply.
This is what young John does most mornings. It is one of his contributions to his household, and he is happy to do this for his family. John has a small limp in his walk from open wounds of Guinea Worms that have entered his body through the very water he walks to retrieve daily. This worms burrow into the muscle tissue of the human body eating away at it, bursting through the skin from time to time. Without proper medicine, the only way to kill the worm is by looping the exposed worm to a twig and slowly pulling it out over the course of three months or more.
"It hurts," John says, "but it is okay. I must get water for my family." Thousands more children do the same every day in South Sudan, and guinea worm is just one of several waterborne diseases or parasites they may contract.
There is a water crisis in South Sudan. And the problem is at least two-fold. First, the water supply is dirty water, home to countless bugs, snakes and waterborne diseases. Second, water springs are not a guaranteed sustainable water source. A water spring, even a dirty one, could mean the difference between life and death for an entire village. While there are NGO's and US-based non-profits working in countries like South Sudan, there is still much to be done, and many to cure. Check out our Service Trips Page to find out how you might be part of a team that can help bring medical relief to brothers and sisters in South Sudan.
See some pictures of John above, and others we have met in South Sudan.