Our Community
What’s the Cost to Build a Well in Africa?
The work we do is not easy, it is not always straightforward or simple. But because we know that we can play a part in ensuring that kids finish school, women and girls can spend more time providing for their families than collecting water, and that vulnerable children will not succumb to preventable disease, we will continue to fight.
Responding to Poverty in Africa: What Do They Need?
Who knows better than they do what will make a difference in their village? Change and progress require local buy-in and a sense of ownership throughout the community in order to be sustainable.
Fundraiser Feature: The Holland, MI Group
Our friends up north in Holland, Michigan have been doing incredible work fundraising to support the life-changing work of our partners in Africa. We wish we could highlight every single one of them, but for now, here are a few examples of how they’ve gotten their whole community involved!
Overcoming the Fear of Not Enough
The Kingdom of God is open handed. It is not a land of hoarders and collectors. It is not a place where anyone wonders if they will have something to eat while others die under the weight of their bloated indulgences. It is a grandiose vision of God’s kingdom, and perhaps in the “already-and-not-yet” spectrum of this vision, we feel like we are more on the side of “not-yet.” Still, the abundance of God’s kingdom is here already. We have it all around us. We are sinking in it.
To All of God’s Children, We Are With You
Blood:Water exists because we believe that all human beings were created in God’s image and deserve basic rights: freedom, health, common decency, and tolerance just to name a few. Partnering with sub-Saharan African grassroots organizations, we can sometimes feel distant from the racial issues prevalent here in the US, but we have seen how stigma and prejudice of disease, poverty, and identity can impact people’s lives at the most atomic and subatomic levels. We are just as responsible as any other organization or person for making the world a better place for everyone starting at an individual level. Therefore, we condemn the acts of injustice perpetrated every day against Black Americans, whether intentional or not, systemic or overt, historic or current, in the US or abroad.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
-John 13:34
A Message From Blood:Water On Our Beliefs & Actions
Throughout our time supporting African led organizations, we have observed and experienced destructive stigma associated with disease and poverty, and we fight against the diminishing and demoralizing power of false characterizations and quick judgements based in fear. It is with grave moral seriousness that we condemn the acts of racism taking place not only in the United States, but also in many other parts of our world.
Today’s Heroes Create Everyday Miracles
Heroes can be teachers, mailmen, parents, or a public figure you’ve never even met. Today in the US, we have thousands of health care workers serving tirelessly to contain the COVID-19 crisis in our overstuffed hospitals. Volunteers are stepping outside of their comfort zones to make sure that people without the funds for groceries can receive food to sustain their families. Our partners know these problems well, but with this new global development, they also face the possibility of seeing an immense health crisis.
Take a Moment to Reflect
“When I Consider How My Light Is Spent”
By John Milton
When I consider how my light is spent,
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide;
“Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?”
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need
Either man’s work or his own gifts; who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed
And post o’er land and ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait.
We Need YOU this #GivingTuesdayNow
In support of our partners fighting coronavirus in their communities, we are announcing our Frontline Funds campaign to help equip and empower our partners on the ground in Africa as they face this new health crisis in the vulnerable communities they serve. The outbreak is intensifying in many African nations, and experts predict the worst is yet to come for the continent. Blood:Water exists for moments like this. And you have a vital role to play.
“CHANGE” – An Original Poem by Dan Haseltine
We will feel the urge to grasp for all that is slipping around us. Our hands will reach and our arms will contort to catch what falls. Our eyes will blink and blur from the spray of dust born of a million pieces of an old concrete life falling to the new earth that shifts around us and below us, sticking to our eyelashes.