Samaritan's Purse is providing clean water and other relief as families struggle to meet basic needs.
They recounted the flooding that’d happened decades before.
But now Nya was living her own flood story, displaced to a town north of hers called Thaker, with her parents and eight siblings.
As she stood in line for her turn at the borehole pump to gather the day’s water in two jerry cans, she recounted the flood that forced them out.
At first, they dug a dike to redirect the water around their house. Then they built up the earth around their home to hold back the tide.
That night as the monsoon continued and the water rose, the children tried to sleep. But in the morning, they found canoes and fled.
“If it happened the way it did so many years ago,” Nya said, “it could take years for water to recede for people to return again. So, we settled here quickly because we don’t know when it will dry up.”
Nya said that when they first arrived in Thaker, they were desperate for food and water. They had to walk long distances to gather small amounts of standing water from the monsoon-filled swamps. Many in her family grew ill from drinking it.
Now, though, she is able to walk a short distance to the borehole and fill two jerry cans in the morning. In the evening, she’ll fill two more.
Samaritan’s Purse teams, who were also previously working at a base in Mayendit, relocated to Thaker as well to provide food and water to the local and displaced people. Both of the communities suffered during the dry season from a lack of resources among a suddenly grown population.
In addition to emergency food and a number of freshwater projects, our teams also started livelihoods programs for growing crops and literacy programs based out of local churches. We also provided materials for families to construct shelters from the monsoon rains.
Since those early days, former residents of Mayendit still travel back to their old territory to see about their homes. Each time, they return with disappointing news.
“They are seeing that it is completely becoming a swamp,” Nya said. “Even some of the homes cannot even be identified because of the roots and the types of the grass that have grown there.’
God’s Work Among Struggling People
Now several years into their time in Thaker, Nya says they are grateful for a more permanent house just a short walk from water.
She says that the catchment constructed by Samaritan’s Purse that serves as a water tower for the community provides a source of clean water when the boreholes slow to a trickle during the dry season.
“I used to have to walk a long way to get the water from the river,” she said. “It was crowded and there was very little to bring home. When we would bathe in that water, we would itch all over. When we would drink the water, we would immediately feel sick.
“Now I can walk a short distance from my home, and there is plenty for my family. I am grateful for this.”
As our teams continue to work to meet immediate needs among the population in Thaker, we also are expanding our well and borehole projects in the area. These projects also include hygiene and sanitation projects to train and equip the community to keep their precious water safe to drink.
These water projects also provide open doors for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Living Water, to quench spiritual thirst among the displaced and long-time residents alike. As we continue to meet the needs of these hurting families, local churches are also building relationships with these people. Many are coming to understand the love of God as they hear the Word of God proclaimed in their own language. In the process, churches are being strengthened and believers are growing in their faith and their desire to tell others in the community about salvation in Jesus Christ.
“Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again” (John 4:13-14, ESV).
