Water is a scarce, necessary resource.

Typical water transport for many of the 1.1 million who must walk miles for, often dirty, water.

A view from the glass half empty is 1.1 billion people lack access to clean drinking water. Many women and girls must forgo life empowering education, instead spending hours a day walking to the nearest water source, often polluted and miles away, to provide water for their families. Dirty water, sanitation and hygiene-related diseases account for more than 2.2 million preventable deaths annually. But, with one pair of shoes, the glass is not only half full it is overflowing.

Even before the devastating earthquake, a whopping 45% of Haiti’s people did not have access to safe water and 83% did not have access to sufficient sanitation in 2009 according to the World Health Organization. Contaminated ground water is the leading cause of infant mortality, and deadly hepatitis, cholera and dysentery take many adult lives. After the quake, clean water is harder to come by even for places like hospitals.

The latest water drilling rig purchased by Shoeman Water Projects is headed to the Masai lands of Kenya to drill for water in villages a little over 30 miles South of Nairobi. One of the recipient villages is Oloolotikoshi, the birth home of St. Louis, Missouri resident and Shoeman Water Projects Volunteer Jacob Seeru. “For this we celebrate! The land has been donated, and from George the Shoeman and the Sole Sisters the money has been raised with shoes to drill the well bringing clean water to my village,” beamed Seeru. In Seeru’s village alone 1,200 people, and the 5,000 livestock they depend on for a livelihood, will thrive on their new water well.

Shoeman Water Projects is also working with Phones2Water and other water organizations and projects on several projects around the globe. Use the easy online form to request a shoe drive or cell phone drive kit and get started today!