In 1990, several Christian businessmen from Houston traveled to Eastern Africa and saw an overwhelming need for safe drinking water. As a result of the trip, they formed Living Water International (LWI), an organization committed to providing safe drinking water for the people of developing nations. Currently, LWI is working in more than 20 nations in Asia, Africa, South and Central America, and the Caribbean, and serves 5 million people daily through more than 3,000 completed water projects. The organization seeks to provide 11.8 million people with water by 2010.

LWI in Central African Republic (CAR):

The UN recently described the CAR as "the world's most silent crisis." Four civil wars in the last decade have left 40% of the nation's already sparse wells unusable, and a massive influx of Chadian and Sudanese refuges have caused communities of 1,000 to swell to 10,000 virtually overnight. In one northern town, 10,000 share a well meant to sustain 500 - 1,000 people.

In 2007 LWI and its partner ICDI hope to improve access to safe water in the hard to reach north. Along the road between Mbres and Bamingi, there are five villages in need of 25 new wells. The 1,000 mile overland journey and gasoline costs of more than $5 per gallon make drilling in CAR a challenge. The desperately needed wells here cost $15,000 and a rehabilitation costs between $1,200 and $1,500. LWI's goal is to build 75 wells in the region, and repair an additional 100 wells providing clean and safe water to hundreds of thousands of people.

For more information about Living Water International please visit their website at www.water.cc.

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