March, 2013—Life wasn’t easy for Khem Non and her family.
Like others in her Cambodian village, Khem and her family struggled to survive amidst repeated bouts of illness that sapped their strength and their meager savings.
There was no running water or sanitation in their village and most residents didn’t know that the lack of proper latrines was ruining their water and contaminating their rice fields. The result was typhoid, liver infection and parasites.
“Because we had a lack of basic education about healthcare and the environment, we never thought about building a latrine,” Khem explained.
Then Samaritan’s Purse Canada, working through our Cambodian partner, came to the region with an offer to help improve people’s lives through our Household Water Program, which improves water quality and provides health and hygiene education.
Khem’s village learned about keeping food safe from insect and animal contamination, hand washing, fingernail cutting, and other basic hygiene measures. And Khem’s family now has a latrine to help keep their drinking, cooking, and bathing water clean.
“Now our living standard is improving day by day,” she said. “Today, we have money to help our children go to school.”
In another Cambodian village, Ket Sou has seen residents’ health improve since the program began in 2011.
“We had always faced many diseases related to hygiene and sanitation, such as diarrhea, dysentery, typhoid and vomiting,” said Ket. “But now we can reduce those diseases with better hygiene and sanitation.”
This program also provides opportunities to tell people about another kind of water—the living water of Jesus Christ.
“Our health is improving, because we have applied hygiene and sanitation practices,” said a grateful Ket. “We have gotten so much physical and spiritual knowledge (from this program).”
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.