Peace & Justice Ministries: The St. Jude Water Well Fund

According to Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security, "If no action is taken to address unmet basic human needs for water, as many as 135 million people will die from [water-borne] diseases by 2020." Americans spend millions of dollars on bottled water because they don't like the taste of their local tap water, yet one in six people worldwide lack access to clean drinking water. In urban areas of the United States, we have the luxury of focusing on the culinary aspects of water. We don't hold up the glass and ask ourselves, 'Is this water going to make me sick?'

Outside of the United States and Europe, many people have no choice but to drink water they know is contaminated with potentially life-threatening bacteria

A few statistics bring home the scale of the problem:

A total of 1.3 million children under the age of six die each year from drinking infected water.
More than 2 billion people are infected with helminthes, a soil-transmitted worm that nests in the intestines, and schistosomes, parasites that hatch in water, infect humans by penetrating the skin, and are passed in urine or feces

In 2003, we built our first well, in conjunction with the PIME Missionaries in the mountain village of Cuanacaxtitlan, Mexico. St. Jude is committed to build a well each year in developing countries in order to alleviate (in some small measure) the suffering of those who have bad or no water to drink.

The church will be doing a variety of things in order to raise the $15,000 it costs to drill a well. The St. Jude Crafts Fair donated over $5,000 to the water well fund. To find out how you can support the St. Jude Water Well Fund, click here.


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