Don’t you just love it when children lead the way?
That is the back story for Emmanuel Olupot, whose family lives in Uganda. Emmanuel’s twelve-year-old daughter has a pen pal in the US. In the midst of their correspondence she mentioned that people were sick all the time in her community and she wished she could help them. You see, there are 500 people in their community and all of them need a safe source of water. The water they currently had available to them was contaminated, it was stagnant, it came from a watering hole shared with animals, it was making them sick and there were no alternatives. That’s all it took, and soon the two girls where making plans to bring WaterStep’s equipment and training to Uganda. Being an encouraging father Emmanuel began to make plans for the soon to be water project, really not expecting the impact it would have on his community.
The two girls and their families finally met in Uganda, purchased a huge tank to store the water and set up the WaterStep equipment. They taught Emmanuel how to use it, they taught health education, they drank the clean, safe water that was being produced and the local people observed what was going on. Soon, not only were the 500 people from the village lined up to get safe water, but other neighboring villages were arriving as well. Over 3,000 people were coming to Emmanuel’s village to get water for their families. It was time to expand.
To date, Emmanuel has traveled to WaterStep’s storehouse in Nairobi twice to pick up more equipment, enough for five additional villages. He has traveled to surrounding communities, looked at their water sources, determined their needs, dug boreholes if needed, set up WaterStep’s equipment, taught good hygiene habits, taught about the importance of using bleach to disinfect surfaces. Lives are being changed, communities are healthier and hope is restored.
Emmanuel is a pastor taking care of his flock, and a child led the way! What’s not to love?
