When Dinake Hussan learned that a Christian organization was offering a device to people in his Ethiopian town to turn dirty water into safe drinkable water in minutes, he refused to believe it would work.
But when some of Dinake’s neighbors welcomed these “BioSand Water Filters” into their homes, then reported a dramatic improvement in their health, the Muslim man decided to investigate.
At that time in early 2018, Dinake says, his five children were becoming sick with stomach pains and diarrhea every week or two from the water they drew from the family’s 32-meter-deep well.
Each round of sickness caused the family’s three school-age children to miss two or three days of classes. That meant they were falling further and further behind. Meanwhile, Dinake and his wife were experiencing stomach pains and diarrhea that often stopped them from tending their crops and feeding their family.
“I was becoming very worried,” Dinake told us recently. “I was afraid some of us might die.”
The 45-year-old farmer could still remember when a man in their community died in 2001 after severe fever, stomach pains, and diarrhea. The man left behind a wife and several children.
So when Dinake’s neighbors said their health improved after receiving a BioSand Filter funded by Samaritan’s Purse donors, he asked for a filter. Our Christian partner organization in Ethiopia installed the filter in April 2018.
Since then, Dinake says, his family’s stomach pains and diarrhea have stopped.
“We are so thankful for this filter,” he told us, while demonstrating how to pour dirty water in, then quickly collect clear water and drink it.
Dinake’s family is one of 225 in his community that have received BioSand Filters, plus valuable health and hygiene training, from Samaritan’s Purse Canada.
Since 1999, when we began offering BioSand Filters in Ethiopia, we have built 32,000 so far. Worldwide, through construction of our BioSand Filters for households and larger-scale Samaritan’s Filters for schools and small communities, we have provided safe water to almost 1.7 million people. We do all of this in the name of He who called Himself the Living Water, Jesus Christ.
Unfortunately, someone on the planet is still dying every 37.5 seconds from poor water quality and hygiene. And so the need for Samaritan’s Purse Water Projects is still large and urgent. Please be part of a proven solution. Please support our Water Projects through your donations and prayers.
Save the life of a child or adult in a developing country by providing safe water along with health and hygiene education that will help protect them from deadly, but preventable, diseases. Simple and effective water filters, community wells and water storage solutions, and sanitation facilities can all drastically improve lives and open doors to share the eternal hope of Jesus Christ.