Claudia Daniels is the Director of International Partnerships and Missions. She has been on staff since 2001 and spends her days communicating with our field consultants around the world, walking them through their water projects. Claudia said, “I work with them on training, making sure they have the equipment and funding they need, strategizing with them, connecting them with others around the world, mentoring, looking at ways to expand their project or reach to other communities. To me this is not work, this is a fulfillment of what God made me to do.”
We asked Claudia why she has chosen WaterStep as her life’s work. She told us about a time she was walking to a well with a Romanian woman. The woman told Claudia that she had two choices everyday. She could choose to bring home water today that she knows will eventually kill her children or she could choose not to bring home water and they will die sooner. Claudia went on to say, “As a mother, I could not imagine living with those two choices and it did something to my heart. If I can help another mother to be confident that the water she is giving her child is safe and actually a tool for healing instead of disease, I will do it with all I have in me.”
Family is precious to Claudia and we asked her to tell us about those closest to her (pictured above). This is what she had to say: “I am so blessed to have the family that I have. I’ve known my husband Kurtis since I was 6, and as soon as I was allowed to date, he was my guy. We dated other people on and off, but always found our way back to each other. We have been married for 40 years. Kurtis also works at WaterStep and we are together pretty much 24/7. We work, live and play well together. We have two great children, both whom have married amazing people and have given us four beautiful grandchildren that totally entertain us. They really are a whole different type of love.”
We asked Claudia, if you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? Her response was, “Funny, people always ask me this question. I would go to some of these small villages or islands where we have worked for years. I’m dying to meet the people I’ve worked so closely with, meet their families, see their work first hand, and meet the villagers that are now drinking safe water. But on the way home, I’d love to take in a safari or a restful day of sleeping on a beach somewhere!”
