Clean Water - “Colorless Gold or Poison?”

by Marissa Bernards

As part of the Spring Into Action campaign running from April 16 – May 1, we will be posting daily about topics related to extreme poverty and how anyone and everyone can join the movement to end it.

Once I got salmonella after eating elote from a street stand in Mexico and I thought my life was over. After two days of excruciating pain, the ungodly effects of the illness, and plenty of antibiotics, I as good as new. Well, almost -- I never ate street elote again.

Though I am not 100% positive how the elote caused the salmonella, I know one thing for sure – worrying about contracting a life-threatening sickness every time I ate or drank got exhausting.

Last week, I was digging through expedition photos and I came across two that struck me. I have included them below.

These women won’t use that water to care for a garden. It is for drinking. The women walked miles to collect water that cows defecated in, that villagers bathed in, that bacterium thrives in. The worst part? They are completely unaware and entirely out of options. Some consider water to be colorless gold, but in this case, it’s colorless poison.

Water is a basic necessity of life required to survive. CHOICE Humanitarian helps communities gain access to clean water by working side-by-side with community members to construct water systems and ensure water is pure. With safe water systems close by, women and girls save hours each day that were previously spent acquiring unsanitary water. Water systems don’t just open doors to improved health and increased lifespan -- they open doors to opportunity.

On the last day of our spring campaign, our ask is simple: donate $5 to help us bring clean water to rural communities.

-Follow, upvote, and resteem our posts to spread the word

-Join The Village, our members program where you can make a monthly contribution and recieve benifits

-Visit us at choicehumanitarian.org to find out more ways to help