1000 Wells

The statistics are staggering. More than a billion people around the world lack access to clean water. They drink from polluted lakes, ponds, rivers, and streams where animal waste, human sewage, and parasites infect the water. And as if that were not bad enough, in some of the most impoverished communities in Africa women and children must walk as much as two hours each way just to fetch that vile water. As a result, preventable water related diseases actually kill four children every minute of every day.

Because of this crisis among the poorest of the poor, multi-platinum Dove and Grammy Award-winning band Jars of Clay recently announced an ambitious new initiative called the “1000 Wells Project,” designed to provide clean water well systems to 1,000 different locations across southern Africa.

The project has been organized by Blood:Water Mission, the non-profit organization founded by Jars of Clay to foster AIDS relief through faith-based, holistic community development by promoting clean blood and clean water solutions in Africa.

The “1000 Wells Project” is based on the premise that one dollar can actually provide one year of clean water for one person in Africa. Thus, for 1,000 hours this Spring (during the 40 days of Lent), Jars of Clay has been asking artists, bands, audiences, college students, pastors, youth leaders and business leaders across the country to mobilize the people within their communities to each donate at least one dollar for this vital, life-saving work in Africa.

To find out more about this very worthy initiative--or better yet, to make a donation--visit the 1000 Wells or the Blood:Water Mission websites. And in these final days of Lententide, do remember the forthrightness of Christ's Matthew 25 admonition.