When we visit a healthcare provider, we trust that they’ll help us feel better. However, in the community of La Posta, Peru, the local health clinic’s lack of access to safe water was making patients even sicker.
The staff at the La Posta Health Clinic longed for their clinic to be a place of healing. Yet the water crisis made medical care difficult to provide and receive. The clinic only had access to one hand-dug well.
Though the nurses and doctors had done their best to protect the water within it, the open nature of the well made that task impossible. This left the water contaminated.
Those who drank from the well often contracted typhoid, dysentery, and diarrhea. It was also filled with parasites and worms. Mosquitoes nested in the well, spreading malaria. The clinic knew that the water within the well was a health hazard, yet they had no choice but to continue using it.
The nurses had to boil all of the well water to use the source for medical purposes. This was expensive, and the process also hindered the clinic’s ability to provide timely care to their patients. This was especially dangerous during emergency situations, when the ability to quickly clean wounds and sterilize equipment could mean the difference between life and death.
The health workers hated that their efforts to heal were hindered by the water crisis. They could no longer bear to watch their patients suffer or to see patients’ visitors contract waterborne diseases from the water. When they heard about the work Living Water International was doing in Peru, they reached out for help.
Thanks to friends like you, Living Water Peru soon constructed a new well for the clinic. Once it was complete, the clinic staff and the community members rejoiced. They had defeated the water crisis and loosened its hold on their health.
The Living Water staff then held a sanitation and hygiene training for the surrounding community to help the residents understand how to use the new well to improve their health.
The clinic workers and the surrounding community are now free from the worry that the water they need to survive may negatively impact their health. Thank you for saving lives and protecting the health of communities in Peru and around the world by supporting Living Water!
