by Matt Peterson
“Before the zao water came, we were using the dirty water which had germs inside it, flies and snails. It was not nice to our bodies, it was making us sick. We had stomachaches. Others were becoming sick and becoming thin.”
~Stephen (a school boy from Kenya)
Stephen’s story is a very common story for people living in Kenya and other parts of the developing world. In fact, one in six people are living without access to safe drinking water. The water they are able to access is often times contaminated and collected only after walking many miles every day to get it.
zao was started in an effort to help people like Stephen. zao, which means, “to live,” is a humanitarian organization founded by Matt Peterson in 2004. zao’s mission is to transform communities by providing safe drinking water, hygiene education and hope.
Through digging wells, developing springs, delivering hygiene education and ministering to the local people, zao now gives clean drinking water to around 45,0 00 people every day through the 60 water sources we have provided. zao has also provided hygiene training to thousands of people and helped start one church in East Africa.
A team of 12 African employees does most of the day-to-day work, with groups from the U.S. traveling over several times a year to work along side the African team.
In 2008 zao opened an office in West Africa and is currently working on a well in Burkina Faso. This is the first of what zao hopes to be many water projects on the West African front.
In addition to working in Africa, zao started a bottled water business with the goal of using the profits from the business to fund our water projects in Africa. The bottled water business gives people in the U.S. an opportunity to be a part of providing clean water to people in the developing world. Just by doing something they do every day, drinking bottled water, they can be involved in helping people a world away.
To learn more about zao and where you can purchase zao bottled water, please go to www.hydratinghumanity.org