Nazarenes to provide water in drought-stricken Swaziland

Swaziland

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Nazarene Compassionate Ministries, Inc. (NCMI) was awarded a $765,000 grant from the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation to launch Water for a Generation in Swaziland - a project that will provide water to thousands of individuals and communities in drought-stricken areas of the country. 

In the first year of a three year initiative, Water for a Generation will install solar water wells and/or utilize the most environmentally appropriate technology at 12 Nazarene clinics and three garden projects for the Church of the Nazarene's Home-Based Care Task Force in Swaziland. Also in the first year, Nazarene Compassionate Ministries (NCM) will provide water to over 100,000 beneficiaries and produce over 75 million liters of water to a population experiencing severe drought and food security challenges for the past decade.

With funding from the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation and with program oversight being provided by NCM-Swaziland Director Beauty Makhubela, over the three years of the initiative water will be provided  at 35 sites (including church and government clinics) and 15 garden projects. The project will generate over 2.4 billion liters of water over 10 years.

Africa Region Compassionate Ministries Director Cosmos Mutowa expressed enthusiasm about this project and noted, "Water for a Generation, with support from the Church, will now provide both spiritual and physical water to a population recoiling from the HIV/AIDS pandemic that has threatened the survival of this country." 

Swaziland has the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in the world. Over 42 percent of the women of child bearing age are HIV positive. The population has gone from 1.3 million to 953,000, leaving 125,000 orphans without parents or family support. 

Under a separate initiative, Saving a Generation, with funding from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and USAID, Swaziland Nazarene Health Institutions (SNHI) will now be able to administer the precious life-saving Antiretroviral (ARV) medications that keep individuals alive and enable them to live productive and meaningful lives.

NCMI Executive Director Tom Nees said, "The grant from the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation will now allow us to support their efforts to provide and administer ARVs and to provide clean and potable water to families surrounding the clinics. This effort will address the water-born opportunistic diseases that kill thousands of people living with AIDS."   
--NCMI (All funds expressed in U.S. dollars)

 

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