Running for Clean and Living Water
When I was 14, I first heard that over 703 million people lack access to clean and safe drinking water. I read about a fundraiser called the 6k for Water and casually suggested to my dad, the associate pastor of my church, that it was something we should do. He took the idea and ran with it, and in 2018, Fellowship Bible Church began hosting an annual 6K4WATER.
Running or walking 6 kilometers—the average distance people without easy access to clean water travel each day to often unsafe sources—is a powerful way to raise awareness and funds for the global water crisis. Committed to this cause, the church is hosting its eighth 6K for Water on March 29 at Fellowship Bible Church.
For the past seven years, Fellowship Bible Church has raised an average $5,000 a year for this cause. For seven years, my dad has put hours of work into planning and executing a successful event. And, for seven years, I ran (occasionally walked) my 6 kilometers, took credit for a great idea, and remained relatively removed from the gravity of the global water crisis.
Now, the water crisis isn’t a reality I can mostly avoid.
After graduating from college in May, I sought a role in nonprofit communications and discovered neverthirst, an organization based in Birmingham, Alabama, that works to provide clean water to rural, unreached communities in Asia and Africa. After several interviews with the organization, I became more impressed by their work and more moved by the significance of the need. I was eventually offered the job of Office Manager, accepted, and started the role in September.
For the first time, my idea to do something about the water crisis actually involved me doing something about the water crisis.
For the first time, I was not just faced with the statistics of the water crisis (which are staggering) once a year but became surrounded by stories of individuals living with this reality. Stories of families forced to filter animals and bugs from the water they drink and cook with. Women losing their children to preventable waterborne illnesses. And girls unable to receive an education because they spend the majority of their days collecting water. I learned the true tragedy of over 703 million people lacking access to the most basic human need.
But now, I also consistently hear the hope of communities receiving clean water for the first time–improving economies, health, and education–as well as the incredible work happening internationally to make a difference. I see firsthand the way donors enable the building of handpumps, piped water systems, and WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) programs in previously marginalized communities. I witness the sacrifices of local partners and pastors and the passion of individuals stateside leveraging their friends and businesses to transform entire regions.
And, I finally understand the incredible impact my home church has made over the years, now knowing the $5,000 or more they raise annually is enough to bring clean water and hope to an entire community. I see now that events like the 6K effectively raise awareness of the global water crisis and fund readily accessible solutions through organizations like neverthirst. Now more than ever, I recognize that the need is great, but the problem is solvable.
I see the potential for this event, and others like it, to end the water crisis in our lifetime.
This year, the 6K4WATER will support neverthirst for the first time, and I am thrilled to be involved in the event from both sides. I get to attend as a representative of neverthirst and a proud Texarkana native. Join us as our community transforms lives across the world by taking one more step toward ending the preventable need for clean water.
To sign up for or sponsor the 6K on March 29 at Fellowship Bible Church, 1601 Moores Lane, at 8 a.m., go to RUNSIGNUP/6K4WATER or contact [email protected]. To learn more about neverthirst and provide clean and living water to the unreached, visit neverthirstwater.org.
