World Water Day: Food For The Poor Brings Hope to Families Facing the Scarcity of Water
COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (March 18, 2025) – For 24-year-old Ximora, living in La Hierbabuena, Guatemala, the simple act of getting water is an exhausting, daily battle.
Every day, she embarks on a grueling 97-minute trek on foot with her father, navigating steep hillsides, dense brush, and barbed-wire fences just to collect enough water for her baby’s bottles, cleaning, and basic hygiene.
“Sometimes, we long for water here, but we don’t have it. We wish we did,” Ximora said. “To do our chores, we have to set aside time to fetch water because it’s difficult.”
In honor of World Water Day on Saturday, March 22, Food For The Poor (FFTP) has launched the “Where Water Flows” fundraising campaign to bring sustainable solutions to communities like La Hierbabuena.
Every dollar donated will help provide more than 140 liters (about 37 gallons) of water to families in need, ensuring that mothers like Ximora no longer have to risk their health and safety to secure this most basic necessity.
Ximora’s struggle is one shared by millions. More than 161 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean, or 1 in 4, lack adequate access to safe drinking water. The scarcity of water continues to intensify, leaving 2.7 million people in need of assistance.
“One of our campaign statements is ‘Where Water Flows, Your Heart Grows,’ and it spotlights the altruistic nature of our donors,” FFTP President/CEO Ed Raine said. “Their hearts are filled with compassion and joy, knowing they are providing a much-needed resource to vulnerable children and families.”
Since 1993, World Water Day has served as a reminder of the urgent need for clean water and sustainable water management. Finding a safe water source is a daily challenge for those living in poverty. Many impoverished families in the countries where FFTP helps rely on rainwater collection or travel long distances to fetch water.
FFTP is committed to providing sustainable, long-term solutions to water scarcity by building wells, installing water filtration systems and providing families with sanitation solutions that promote hygiene and dignity.
In a program separate from the “Where Water Flows” campaign, FFTP recently partnered with the Procter & Gamble (P&G) Children’s Safe Drinking Water (CSDW) Program to distribute water purification kits to families in need.
The P&G CSDW Program launched in 2004 to help address the lack of clean drinking water globally and has since provided more than 23 billion liters of clean water across more than 100 countries. A 4-gram packet of P&G Purifier of Water transforms 10 liters of contaminated water into clean drinking water in just 30 minutes, using simple tools like a bucket, a spoon, and cheesecloth.
In partnership with the P&G CSDW Program, FFTP is embarking on a pilot project that will distribute 240,000 water purification packets that will be included in 1,000 water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) kits. Each WASH kit will include 240 water purification packets, two buckets, a spoon, cheesecloth, and clips. An additional 214,000 packets will be included in disaster preparedness kits for distribution in 2025 and 2026 to countries that are not part of the WASH kit pilot project.
On Thursday, March 20, volunteers will gather at FFTP’s headquarters in Coconut Creek, Fla., to assemble the 1,000 WASH kits for the pilot project.
“We are delighted to initiate this project with the help of the Procter & Gamble Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program,” Raine said. “It will make a tremendous difference to many vulnerable families that struggle to gain access to clean water.”
That is evident in the life of Yareli, a schoolgirl who lives in Unión Barra Los Achiotes in Honduras. Her community has a drinking water treatment plant provided by FFTP and trusted partners Water Mission and CEPUDO.
Under the tutelage of Don Chico, a community elder who works at the plant, Yareli has learned about the system that serves her community and the value it brings to its residents.
“Don Chico has taught me how water works in our community,” she said. “I have learned a lot and, above all, that water is vital, and I feel proud of my community.”
To make a donation in support of the FFTP World Water Day fundraising campaign, visit foodforthepoor.org/waterday.
About Food For The Poor
Food For The Poor, one of the largest international relief and development organizations in the nation, does much more than feed millions of hungry children and families living in poverty primarily in 15 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. This interdenominational Christian ministry provides emergency relief assistance, water, medicine, educational materials, homes, support for vulnerable children, care for the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance. For more information, please visit foodforthepoor.org.
Ernestine Williams
Communications
305-321-7342
[email protected]
