Newsletter – January 2018

The new year is off to a great start with Water is Life Ethiopia as an array of new initiatives is launched. For the next few weeks, Merrie and I are in Ethiopia with an amazingly dedicated and competent team of Ethiopians who are tackling root causes of poverty and diseases with remarkable wisdom.

Kebby and Yared are leaders of the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) team who are using their expertise to find a variety of ways to bring safe drinking water to extremely remote parts of Ethiopia. We have designed very specific water systems to treat salty groundwater in volcanic desert regions using reverse osmosis. Other systems have been designed to deliver fresh water to isolated villages using solar powered pumps in a way that is more efficient and effective than the usual hand pumps. By one kind of wisdom, we are calculating and engineering solutions that are appropriate and practical to the environment.

Mulugeta, Elsa and Ashenafi are leading the quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the Sustainable Living Team (SLT) movement after five years of experience. This assessment will invite participants to reflect on lessons learned and then chart the future course for leadership development, sustainability, effectiveness and expansion. By another kind of wisdom, we are listening to hidden and soft voices of love experienced in SLTs to inform and find the way forward together that surpasses and includes mindful calculations but sensed in body, heart, and spirit.

Wisdom is comprised of many kinds of knowing. We are intent to learn from all wisdom and not settle for just the pieces that tend to break us apart. True wisdom leads to love and we are dedicated to learn to live in love.

Thank you for encouraging and enabling this to happen through Water is Life Ethiopia. Your continued support and generosity is vital.

Waking up to Wisdom Everyday,

David Harding