Organization: Lifewater International

Lifewater International is a Christian nonprofit organization established in 1977 that demonstrates God’s love by helping communities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America gain safe water, adequate sanitation, and effective hygiene practices that they will enjoy for generations. Focusing on sustainability, Lifewater and its qualified volunteer field trainers equip in-country partner organizations in the three crucial components of water development: water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). Lifewater partners include organizations and churches in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In each partnership, Lifewater uses appropriate and reproducible technologies for each location. Lifewater’s partner organizations use Lifewater training and resources to help local communities meet their basic water and sanitation needs. Through this, they gain confidence in their own ability to nurture the health and well-being of their people.

Lifewater International has worked in over 40 countries around the world over the last 30 years. During this time, Lifewater and our partners have provided 3,300 water systems (boreholes and repaired hand pumps), which have provided safe water to 1.4 million people.

There are several factors that help us determine where we direct our efforts, including the extent of the need, the capacity of our in-country partner organizations, and Lifewater’s own capacity to manage multiple partnerships. Since all of these factors change over time, so does the list of countries in which we are currently working. In the past, Lifewater has worked in:

Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, China, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea Bissau, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Laos, Liberia, Malawi, Mexico, Moldova, Moroco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Romania, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

As of May 2009, Lifewater has eleven in-country partners in eight countries: Ethiopia, Laos, Kenya, Mozambique, Uganda, Afghanistan, Ecuador, and Zambia.

Lifewater's Mission: Compelled by God’s call and the global water and sanitation crisis, Lifewater International equips partner organizations and works with them to empower communities in developing countries to gain safe water, adequate sanitation, effective hygiene, and the knowledge of Jesus’ love.

Lifewater train in-country partners in shallow well drilling, hand pump repair, biosand filtration, latrine design and construction, WASH promotion, hygiene education, and community development principles and practices. Lifewater has designed curriculum to be used on two levels. The first set of training materials is used to prepare our partners for community WASH development. The second set of training materials is used by our in-country partners to train community health workers, leaders, and community members.

Lifewater uses participatory learning methods for all of its training curricula (similar to PHAST) and emphasizes community-led WASH programming. A more detailed description of our training programs can be found at www.lifewater.org.