One of my favorite quotes ever is by the ever-hopeful and inspiring Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. The quote goes, “When I was a boy and would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’” When I think about this…
Occasionally, you meet people who—without knowing it—completely change your perspective and help you reevaluate your purpose. This summer, I met someone who did that for me. Her name was Merce. She originated from Spain but moved to the Dominican Republic to make a difference there. Merce first visited the country at the ripe age of nineteen…
I have always been fascinated by water because of its vast characteristics and roles in the world. Water, in its simplest form, is two hydrogen molecules bonded by hydrogen bonds to an oxygen molecule. Those three simple things are what sustains life as we know it. Humans can only survive three days without water. Then you…
Growing up in Mexico as a missionary kid, I saw a lot of injustice in plain sight: villages of people living in poverty, barely making enough to live and living in unsanitary conditions. Through my travels in developing countries, I have seen people living in huts with trash surrounding their houses and the type of…
I went on a trip to the Dominican Republic at the beginning of the summer as part of my internship. Overall, it was a fantastic experience, and I loved learning more about the heart and mission of Healing Waters International. As a bonus of the trip, we went out on a pier our last day in…
Healing Waters International strives to provide long-term, sustainable water purification systems to help communities in the developing world have water that lasts a lifetime. Since sustainable water systems are our focus, we typically do not function as a disaster relief organization, but we are certainly burdened to come alongside communities who have been affected by…
“Which of these bottles of water is dirty?” asks Jose, the health & hygiene teacher in the rural community of San Pablo in Guatemala, while he holds up three different water bottles. One is visibly dirty, brown water that looks like the water from the river. The children immediately eliminate that bottle saying “of course…
The season of Easter is upon us and with that I’m reminded of God’s promise of Jesus in Isaiah 61:1-3 …that He will come to “proclaim good news to the poor,” to “release from darkness the prisoners” and to “bestow on them a crown of beauty for ashes.” Jesus did this and continues to do this. The…
What does it mean to “treat” water? On the surface it seems simple: “Treated water” is that which has been made safe to drink through some form of processing. This is presumably desirable for human health and global development. Taking a closer look however, the term is quite ambiguous: Does treating water imply putting something into it,…