Aberash Dabele has a message for Samaritan’s Purse supporters who enabled her to receive a BioSand Water Filter that is still working well after more than 20 years: “We are very happy and very thankful. God bless them for this gift.”

When Aberash and her family in Ethiopia received their filter in 1999, the average worldwide construction and installation cost to Samaritan’s Purse—along with providing vital hygiene and sanitation training—was £60 per filter. That original £60 investment is still providing safe water for Aberash and her family.

Today, the average worldwide cost of building and installing a BioSand Filter, plus the health and hygiene training, is £75. Over 20 years, that equates to only £3.75 a year—an amazingly low-cost and dependable way to transform people’s lives.

No longer bedridden

Aberash says her family’s lives were definitely transformed by their filter. Before then, she and her husband and their children would regularly become sick with potentially deadly diarrhoeal diseases including typhoid.

“We are much healthier today, ”Aberash says of her household of six, including grandchildren.

Since 1991, when Samaritan’s Purse began offering BioSand Filters in Ethiopia, we and our local Christian partners have built 32,000 in the African nation. Worldwide, through the construction of our BioSand Filters for households and larger-scale Samaritan’s Filters for schools and small communities, we have provided safe water to almost 1.7 million people.

A Greater Gift

As we’ve done this vital work, God has given us opportunities to tell people about a gift that’s even greater than safe water: “eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23, ESV). What a blessing God has brought through this ministry!

But sadly, someone – often a child – is dying every minute from diarrhoeal diseases caused by poor water quality and hygiene*. So the need for Samaritan’s Purse Water Projects remains critical and urgent. Please invest in deserving people like Aberash through your donations and prayers.

SOURCE: *World Health Organisation 2017.