ServeNow continues to provide clean drinking water to people in slums and villages. It’s wonderful to see how many people are continuing to be blessed by the project!
Here are a few of our latest stories:
Ramlatha is a young woman from the a slum where her husband works as a stone-cutter. She is 6 months pregnant and since they are poor, there is no money for medical care and good nutrition to keep her and her growing baby healthy. Every day, she had to fetch water from quite far., for her entire family. And even then, she knew that the water she brought home for her family wasn’t clean enough to drink and would be harmful for her and her baby. Yet, there was no other option; she could not afford to buy water, because that would cost almost 20% of her husband’s daily wages. She said: ServeNow’s water project is a great help for me and my unborn child. I would never have been able to afford to buy clean water for my family. It is literally a life-saving gift. Thank you so much! The picture below shows Ramlatha (right) with her younger sister (left).
Sunil lives together with his wife, two children and his mother, who is a widow. He and his wife work as daily wagers to earn their livelihood. He said: We have experienced an acute scarcity of drinking water. Our wells have dried up, and we were walking two kilometers every time to fetch water. It was very difficult for us. It was such a relief when ServeNow came with clean drinking water. We are very grateful to ServeNow for this wonderful gift at this crucial time of the year. We humbly request you to kindly carry out this great program till the end of the summer season, and please do remember us next year as well.
Lachhu is from Jharkhand. She is one of the beneficiaries of ServeNow’s Water for Life program. She said: My husband and I used to walk a far distance to get water from a bore-well. The well water contains too much iron, but it is the only well we have for all the people who live here. We used to wait for hours in line, just to draw two or three buckets of water. Sometimes we stayed up all night long, so we could fetch the water we needed when there were fewer people. However, that meant that we were not able to work much during the day, and there were days that we could not afford to buy food. We are so thankful for the water you’re bringing us. Thank you for coming to our rescue. This is like medicine for our health.
Ranjita lives with her husband and three children in a village. She used to walk about 2 kilometers to fetch water from an open cistern where water is not clean. Sometimes she collapsed from dehydration after fetching one pot of water from the cistern under the scorching sun. She said: We would not have survived this terrible summer if ServeNow had not come to our rescue with clean drinking water. I am so relieved that I don’t have to walk two kilometers every time in order to fetch a pot of unclean water from the open cistern, which is open to both people and animals. Thank you, ServeNow, for providing us with sufficient clean drinking water, twice a week.
In another area we visited a slum where 50-60 families live in shanties, with only a plastic sheet over their heads. These migrant laborers from various districts in the state gather here and look for odd jobs in the nearest town. Most of them are stone-cutters. For the past months, ServeNow has been providing clean drinking water to the residents. We did this in partnership with a local pastor who has a vision to reach these people with the Gospel; ServeNow’s water project proved to be a perfect way to do so. After two weeks of water distribution, the slum dwellers were very thankful to receive clean drinking water and were open to the idea of the pastor starting a Sunday school in the slums. Last Friday, a team from ServeNow visited this pastor’s church, and we conducted a one-day program for the children in that slum and from nearby villages. In spite of the scorching heat and a power outage, the children enjoyed themselves thoroughly and couldn’t stop thanking ServeNow at the end of the day. The children also received a nutritious meal and a copy of God’s Love for You. It was amazing to see how clean water opened up hearts for the Gospel!
