After a couple of days of visiting cultural and historic sites, our small group was ready to get down to business. Water to Thrive has a new partner in Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church Development Inter Church Aid Commission (EOC-DICAC). The EOC has over 40 million followers. You can find a church in every district including remote and inaccessible locations throughout Ethiopia. The development arm of the Church was established in 1972. The DICAC supports rural water supply, road construction, education, irrigation, food security, aids prevention, care of refugees, and emergency food assistance.

Our projects with EOC DICAC are located around Gondar or Gonder – as we learned, spelling is arbitrary. We have five projects including 3 hand dug wells, one shallow borehole and one spring development.

  

The five water points serve almost 3,000 individuals. The photos show the new wells along with the water sources that served the communities before the wells were constructed. The people we meet share similar words of thanks to the donors and as expressed by one woman at the well, “Thank you and may God bless. You have saved us and we are overwhelmed with joy.”

After a very long day, walking several miles to the wells, we were exhausted but also realizing the hardships of the people we serve. They walk the same distances hauling heavy jugs of water, firewood and small children with seeming ease. We are all full of love and understanding of the importance of our work.