World Water Day raises awareness
Helping hand — Students had the opportunity to pose with an imitation well similar to the wells Causelife is building around the world on World Water Day. Photo Provided
Causelife encouraged students and faculty to recognize the need for clean water
Causelife brought 5,000 “just add water” stickers to Liberty’s campus to celebrate World Water Day (WWD). Representatives for the World Help affiliated organization stood at a booth at the back hallway of DeMoss giving the stickers to students who posed for pictures beside a giant water well display.
The visit occurred on WWD, Tuesday, March 22. WWD was first observed in 1993 after being instated by a United Nations resolution.
This year WWD was celebrated all over the world with all kinds of events and rallies.
The purpose of the day is to create awareness of the world water crisis, which is occurring all over the globe, especially in developing countries where access to water is limited and unsanitary. Causelife’s online community specialist Suzanne Odell represented the organization Tuesday.
“We want to, first of all, raise awareness for what today is for, which is to bring up the need that one billion people in the world face not having access to clean water… but also kind of gauge the interest level of this campus,” Odell said.
Odell graduated from Liberty in 2008, where she heard of the ministry of World Help.
“I wanted to use my skills to do something that was helping people,” Odell said.
About one year ago she started working for Causelife.
Causelife was created by World Help in 2009 to specifically address the world water crisis, without being under the label of an exclusively Christian-supported agency.
World Help created Causelife because of the desire for “non-Christians also to get involved,” Odell said. The current water crisis stifles the education, economy and health of millions of communities around the world.
According to Odell, children who should be in school and parents who should be working and harvesting are spending many hours a day walking miles upon miles to fetch parasite and disease infected water.
This year’s slogan at Causelife is “just add water” because simply adding sanitary water to an area can improve lives, communities and economies. Causelife works to enable those who want to raise support for digging wells in needy areas and by providing water to those places, primarily in Rwanda, Uganda, India and Guatemala.
“We actually drill both shallow and deep-bore wells, bringing water to communities for around 20 years,” Odell said.
Causelife recently dug a well for a school in Rwanda with the help of a church, according to Odell. Previously, the children had to pay for their own water, which was very expensive, but now, that money can be used to invest in their education and provide them with a bright future.
“It’s just a big circle effect on how water can change a community,” Odell said. “Now those kids have the tools they need to implement sustainable solutions like raising chickens. It changes everything.”
According to Odell, based upon Liberty students’ response to Causelife’s visit, a Causelife chapter may open on campus.
“We really just want to make ourselves more accessible to the student body here because we feel like there’s a lot of students who are willing to be activists,” Odell said.
Students who want to learn more about the ministry of Causelife and how they can get on board, should visit them at causelife.org./justaddwater or on facebook at facebook.com/causelife.