It may seem obvious to those of us who've always been blessed with safe drinking water straight from our kitchen faucets, but not all peoples of the world understand that microscopic organisms found in water from lakes and streams can bring sickness and death. Many refuse to believe in such invisible agents until it's proven to them.

Ngongongare, a very poor village in Tanzania, needs water. And 10-year-old Eva Henderson of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, aims to do something about it! Their closest water source is polluted with chemicals, so they must walk 7 miles roundtrip to another source—a stream, used by both people and animals, that is also unsafe—that frequently causes diarrhea, parasites, cholera, typhoid…and death. Although the villagers must work hard in the fields just to survive, they commonly miss work due to illness. Children miss school because, when not sick, they and their moms must spend hours fetching water each day for drinking and cooking. “Water is their greatest need,” our contact there told me.

In Goma, these women use dirty lake water (transported in the yellow jerry cans) for drinking, cooking and sanitation Dear Friends, Did you know that […]