1 In 10 People Lack Clean Water

We believe that we achieve optimal wellness when we think outside of ourselves and help others.  Research has shown that people who volunteer have better mental health.  Helping others puts our own lives in perspective, and helps us restore an attitude of gratitude and renew our sense of purpose.  When you participate with Columbia Psychology Healing Center LLC, you are helping God’s children around the globe to have access to clean water.  We donate every month to CHARITY: WATER a trusted 4-star charity on Charity Navigator.  We also raise funds every year on our WALK FOR WATER.   CHARITY: WATER finds the best sustainable solution at each location, coordinates sanitation and hygiene training, and establishes a local water committee so that residents have clean drinking water for life. 100% of public donations are sent to local partners on the ground, who build and implement the projects. When the projects are completed, CHARITY: WATER proves every one of them using GPS coordinates, photos and details of the community served.  We have been organizing annual Walk for Water events since 2012.  Thanks to CHARITY: WATER, people have clean water for life in over 11 villages, in Ethiopia, Congo, Nepal, Cambodia, Tanzania, Kenya, Niger, and Malawi.  We strive to see the day when everyone has access to clean water. See our COMPLETED WALK FOR WATER PROJECTS here.

On November 10, 2023, Emily was honored to meet Charity: Water founder Scott Harrison and hear his inspiring story of founding this great cause!

To say that my mission trips to Haiti were life-changing is an understatement. Nothing could have prepared me to see what poverty looks like when most people are living off the equivalent of $1 USD a day, children play with empty water bottles because they have no toys, every single person is quite thin, and people have flu-like symptoms several times a week due to unclean water. Some of the children and older individuals do not survive the water-borne illnesses. We partnered with the locals to provide sanitation trainings, as most of the people have no more than a 7th grade education.

They first had to learn the basics of hand washing, and then learn how to clean and maintain the water filters we were providing. We walked through the villages and visited homes that were seldom enclosed, many lacking roofs. Some of the people did not seem to yet understand what we were up to. But for those whose neighbors had already received the filters, they had seen drastic health improvements and were desperate to receive this gift. They followed us around, and some even tried to take our filters, but the locals had structured it so that the distribution would be orderly. I simply cannot picture without emotion the look of deep gratitude in the eyes of those women who knew their lives were forever changed by the gift of clean water.

Clean water-something most of us take for granted, and something we use for absolutely everything-I challenge you to go through just one day aware of every time you use water, and imagine what it would be like to not have this precious life necessity that absolutely every person deserves. As we left the beautiful country, the grateful Haitians carried our luggage on their heads all the way up the steep mountain. It is an unforgettable image forever ingrained in my mind, and one that leaves me speechless.