Adopt a Village 2.0
We have always been amazed at the women in the villages where we work with the local church.
Caring for children, gathering water, cooking meals, earning a living...they are incredibly resourceful to say the least...but also incredibly marginalized.
So at the end of 2010 we began to dream about what it might look like to equip the local church in India to empower these women through different methods to not only survive in their community, but to thrive.
So we went back to the Adopt a Village drawing board with our Neverthirst India Director, Andrew Gurkin. We began to see the importance and willingness of the local church to learn new approaches in addressing the needs of the community by empowering the women of the community. Clean water is a great start, but we found in most cases, this is just the beginning.
We worked hard and with the church to identify four key areas we believe could be beneficial to the women and their families...and eventually to the entire village (in addition to clean water):
* Biblical Foundations - the church will share the gospel in a contextually appropriate manner and over a three year period
* Sanitation and Hygiene - identifying areas of concern and addressing these issues is imperative to a healthy home and community
* Economic Empowerment - these women have the ability and desire to learn new trades and help their families earn a living
* Leadership Development - we believe it's imperative that everything is reproducible and in this way the women become leaders and agents of change in their community
Our website is in the process of being updated with opportunities for you, your church, your family or your business to help provide holistic care to the poor - all through the local church. This can be done by 'adopting' an entire village or by sponsoring women individually to participate in the program.
If you're interested in finding out more now - just email us at natalie@neverthirstwater.org. We'll be back on our blog often to give you updates and news from the field.
