Sanitation is a mission

from the San Luis Obispo Tribune

Lifewater International of San Luis Obispo

The group headquartered here has helped more than 1 million people in disadvantaged areas of the world gain access to safe water and better hygiene
By Julie Lynem

Dan Stevens had been a pastor in Southern California for 30 years when he decided to pursue another calling.

He had been involved in mission work through his ministry, taking trips to Africa, Mexico and the Philippines. But after becoming acquainted with people with ties to Lifewater International, a Christian training organization that helps bring safe water, sanitation and hygiene practices to villages across the globe, Stevens made the leap from the pulpit to the nonprofit world.

He became the executive director of Lifewater in 2002, about three years after the group, which had formed with a handful of volunteers, moved from Southern California to San Luis Obispo County. The organization was founded 27 years ago by Bill Ashe, the co-owner of Shaw Pump, a pump distributor now based in Torrance.

Today, Stevens leads a staff of 25 at their San Luis Obispo offices, and he is active in the field, working with Lifewater’s partners to drill wells, repair hand pumps, build latrines and conduct sanitation workshops. To date, the organization and its international partners have helped more than 1 million people gain access to safe water.

Stevens, who traveled to Ethiopia this weekend, recently spoke to The Tribune about Lifewater’s mission to give people the education and tools they need to remain healthy.

Q: What do you find most challenging about Lifewater’s work, and what do you do to keep everything moving in the right direction?

A: Our ultimate goal is for communities in developing countries to have safe water and improved sanitation, effective hygiene and knowledge of God’s love. We develop training materials and train North Americans to train our indigenous partners, who then train down into the village. They train communities not only on why you need to wash your hands, but that you need someplace to wash your hands (using a tippy tap, a gallon jug with clean water that hangs in a tree). It’s a big feat to make sure that the information is getting through. That’s why it’s important to do the monitoring and evaluation. If it’s not, then we track it back to see where there was a breakdown. You also have to be conscious of culture. In one Muslim community, the latrines were built with the doors opening east, and people wouldn’t use them because that was considered a bad thing.

Q:When you go into a community, do people in the villages already have a basic understanding of what your organization is about?

A: Our partners have gotten to know these communities and live in the area. They’ll invite the chief and will ask if the community wants to think about water and sanitation. Trainers will train in community health through hygiene. It’s an interactive education, which helps key people in the community understand the need for safe water and healthy sanitation. They come to understand disease pathways, the five critical times to wash their hands and why kids might be having diarrhea on a regular basis. Sometimes, they have had so much diarrhea that they think it’s a normal bowel movement. When you get people to understand what health and well being and disease pathways are, then they begin to explore how to block disease pathways. They begin to say, ‘Gosh, we not only want water closer to the village so we won’t have to walk and get it, we want to get and use water in a safe way.’

Q:What have been some of Lifewater’s recent accomplishments?

A: One of the more exciting accomplishments we’ve had is working in northern Uganda, (a country that has been devastated by war). Over the years we’ve worked with two indigenous national partners and built their capacity to do community water development. They’ve been helping people move out of the (internally displaced persons) camps and back to villages, helping them get water and community hygiene. One of the partners started a soccer program. It has gotten young men and women interested in their community health, where it has generally been the older folks.

Q: President Bush’s recent trip to Africa has brought attention to the continent. What more do you think the

U. S. needs to do to keep the spotlight on Africa, and what are some common misconceptions about the most pressing problems facing Africa today?

A: So much attention is paid to HIV/AIDS, but when patients have AIDS the need for safe water is critical. I think that most North Americans are just not conscious of how difficult it is for people to live without safe water because we have it. You can drink water out of your toilet bowl, and it’s safe. We don’t understand that 1.1 billion people just don’t have access to safe water. Another thing that Americans need to figure out is how to do good without doing harm. How do you help people figure out their own solutions and use their own resources to develop their own assets. That takes a little more time and connectedness, and a little more involvement in people’s lives. Since 1980 there’s been $800 billion given to Africa in aid, and it’s not much further along than it was before. It’s not just about money, it’s about really understanding the root causes of poverty and how do you build capital in an effective manner into a country so that it does progress, and that the country has the ability to help itself.

Q: How can people here at home offer support?

A: People can open up their wallets, volunteer to be educated and help us to train others, which is such a wonderful gift. It’s just awareness. Look at what’s happened with breast cancer and what has happened with AIDS. We hope that with water, sanitation and hygiene, it becomes a movement. We’ve got to help the world have safe water. Schools around the world in developing countries need to teach the kids. That could change in a generation if we would invest in schools.