Personal Narrative: Heaven's Interruption

Based on a research survey conducted by the United Nations it reveals that, “convenient access to water and sanitation facilities increase privacy and reduce risk to women and girls of sexual harassment …” (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2005). Women living at the beginning and middle points of the village have to trek for a considerable distance to reach the stream, when compared to those who live at the bottom of the village near the stream. Women are the primary stakeholders in the fight for clean water as sources such as many rivers and wells are contaminated as they bear the burden and lack the freedoms that are necessary to ensure equality not inequality. Women in India have limited access to resources and the ability to express in the public sphere, which creates division of bearing the burden of responsibilities in the fight against the shortage of water.

The water and sanitation problem in the developing world is far too big for charity alone. Water.org is driving the water sector for new solutions, new financing models, greater transparency, and real partnerships to create lasting change. Their vision: Safe

Water is an essential basic human need. Clean, safe drinking water is scarce and there are millions of people around the world that spend a full day searching for the resource. Worldwide access to clean, safe drinking water is a simple human right and an essential step towards cultivating living standards worldwide. Yet, more than one in nine people still lack dependable access to this valuable source. It is estimated that every person needs 20 - 40 liters of clean, safe water for drinking, cooking, and other factors that affect your health. (Editorials, 2010) The lack of access to improved water affects those living in poor, developing regions; however, even populations living in countries with exceptional water

As I thought about seeing Grace for the first time in a while, my stomach starts to hurt. I’m staring out the window to see a sign saying, “HOME OF THE LOUISIANA CARDINALS” and I know we’re there. I hear my mom say “Finally, we’re here,” as she ripped off her seatbelt. She starts to yell at my brother as he’s opening the door before we come to a complete stop. As I turn to look out the window again, I’m the first person to see Grace. She was leaning up against the fence with a couple of her teammates. Without saying another word I rip off my seatbelt and fly open the door. I shut the door quietly so she wouldn’t notice we were there and waited impatiently for everyone else to get out of the car.

Thanks to the United Nations general assembly recognizing the need for clean water in Resolution 64/292, the states and international organizations have been called on to provide funding and resources to help developing countries provide safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water to all. This is a step in the right direction, seeing as women and children in some countries have to walk more than 30 minutes to collect water- if there is any water to collect at all.

There are certain things in life that people take for granted when living in a first world country. Some of these include sanitation and water.

Nirvana, idyll, paradise, heaven on earth, and Utopia what do all these words have in common? They are an idea, a figment of our imagination, something we can only aspire to achieve. Even the Greeks knew it; the Greek translation for Utopia is “not place” or “no place” as in a place that does not exist. So how could I stand here today and tell you that a utopia could exist on earth that would be naive of me. What I will say is originally, I was naive I did believe in paradise or nirvana or utopia whatever you may call it. I thought of course there could be a utopia, for every person it is different so how could someone tell me otherwise. For me all I needed was my family, my closest friends and of course all my dogs; it did not matter where

780 million people worldwide lack access to clean water and annually, 2 to 8 million die from health issues relating to this. (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, 2013). UNICEF and WHO estimates that the countries shouldering the greatest burden from this are China, India, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Indonesia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Bangladesh, United Republic of Tanzania, Kenya and Pakistan with women and girls disproportionately affected. (UNICEF, 2014)

Grace has been my best friend since we were in preschool together. Although we fight like siblings, she is the most kind hearted, and the nicest person I know. No matter the adventure, she is always their for me through good and bad, like today.

Experiencing what I would call manna from Heaven is amazing. Last week I talked about how God blesses us, and how he wants us to receive more and more as we do what is right. Well the little by little things are coming around and growing into things that are yielding forth fruit. God answers prayers! But that has not always been my understanding.

“Ethiopia, 22 March 2013: Clean Water, Sanitation and a Hygienic Environment, Crucial for Children” an article on Unicef.org proposes that “If 90 school buses filled with kindergartners were to crash every day, with no survivors, the world would take notice, but this is precisely what happens every single day because of poor water, sanitation and hygiene.” People need to do what is right, and instead of hearing about conflicts and hiding from them, citizens need to inform the community to step up and help fix the problems occurring. Water is so crucial to life that you can not live without it, but in Ethiopia it is also so lethal to their citizens. “Ethiopia Post Big Gains in Access to Drinking Water,” on Guardian.com states “the percent of people in Ethiopia without access to clean water has increased substantially from in 2000 having 20% access, to nowadays with 68% clean water access.” While situations may be improving, they are not nearly satisfactory. Help to spread the awareness of the effects on children from lack of clean water in

Over 650 million people live without safe water, 2.3 billion people don't have access to adequate sanitation, one in three of the world's population and over 500,000 children die every year from diarrhoea caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation. That's 1,400 children a day. These were the problems before WaterAid started helping across the world. Without safe water or sanitation, people are trapped in a cycle of poverty and disease. Across the developing world, millions of women are wasting precious time collecting dirty water, children are dying from preventable diarrhoeal diseases, and communities have open sewers running through them.

I don’t know Jeremy, a big part of me wants to believe (looks for Jeremy’s eyes)…it really does. But another part of me,

My journey with God started in February of 1993, when I went to a ladies’ conference in Columbus, Texas. It was while the speaker was explaining that she knew there were some of us out in the audience, who felt guilty about something they had done in their past, and they did not feel that God could forgive them for it. But then she quoted from God’s word; “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, not principalities, no things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:38-39 NASB) The speaker continued on to say that all we need to do is

The situation of education for young girls in Sub-Saharan Africa is very complex, difficult and troublesome. A vast majority of girls don’t get the chance to enroll in primary education, leaving secondary education out of the question because their foremost responsibility is to gather water from a local source. If they are lucky enough to receive an education, many of the young girls are forced to drop out once they have hit puberty because the majority of schools do not provide proper sanitation systems, such as toilets. However, when speaking of local water sources in developing regions, like Sub-Saharan Africa, the term “local” is one that is used very loosely, as in some instances children are required to travel up to forty miles, carrying forty pounds of for the most part fairly dirty water. Water is the primary foundation of life, yet some individuals are forced to spend their days searching for it. Around one hundred and fifty-seven million people in the Eastern and Southern regions of Africa lack access to clean and safe water distribution systems and this causes the need to use external water sources. Due to the many burdens associated with lack of access to water, let alone clean water, such as basic sanitation, education becomes less of a priority. In African culture females hold the primary responsibility to maintain a clean home environment, cooking, cleaning and sanitation included, holding them responsible for the household water supply. A survey conducted in