Hi, it's Kristen with LDS Charities. And today I'm here with Del Brady, who helps run the water initiative. So Del, you were telling me 1 in 10 people do not have access to clean water. That's right. Yeah. It's a severe problem throughout the world. It's not just in the deserts, but even in areas like eastern Europe, where we wouldn't think that there's an issue of clean water. It's about not only just having the clean water, but individuals having clean water forever. So I know that in places, some women have to walk miles and miles. They're getting water out of a dirty river, out of a pond, whatever it is. And they're carrying it sometimes--I don't know--three, six miles back home. It's not safe for them to be walking. They're drinking water that's contaminated. About how much water does someone need a day to live? A recommendation, about two liters a day. And so if you take--I don't know--maybe an average family size of four individuals, that'd be eight liters of water just for drinking a day. And then you take maybe an average jerrican size of water, like this, 20 liters of water in here. Eight liters for that family to drink, that's almost half the can. And then you still have to have cooking, washing, hygiene activities. It becomes a great burden to get enough water into the house just for everyday normal use. I mean, personally for me, that's so hard to imagine. You got this 20-liter jerrican that's about 45 pounds. I'm having a hard time picking it up and walking even a couple of feet. Sometimes these women are putting them on their heads, walking for miles. I can't imagine how physically straining that would be. And all for dirty water, right? It's not even safe to drink. That's right. So this is a problem that a lot of people are dealing with. So tell me, when we're doing clean water projects, how do we decide where we're going to go? Yeah, that's a great question. And we base our projects and programs off of the greatest need. And so we're going where the community has expressed that this is their priority and this is their need. And those two points are important because we don't want to be imposing a solution on another community that becomes unsustainable. And then if it's a priority for that community, that means they're going to be invested in maintaining the new water system. And so they will have water not just for tomorrow, but for years to come. And that's really the greatest thing that we can provide, is helping a community have water for generations. So, I mean, not a Band-Aid solution. This is something that needs to be sustainable beyond just handing someone clean water, because you mentioned earlier, putting in the actual device or maintenance or well, that's the easiest part. Getting clean water is not the hardest part. The hardest part is what to do once the water's there, right? That's right. So you have to figure out a community's investment, because they're going to have--you're going to have to do some additional training, right? That's correct. Yeah, these kinds of system-change, behavior-change efforts take a long time. It's not something where we can fly in, drill a well, and fly out and say, "Good luck." I like to compare it to giving someone a car. Do we say, "Have a car. Learn how to drive and take care of it. Good luck"? I don't think there's going to be a high likelihood that that car will last very long. Same situation with a new clean water system. These families, these communities will really have to change the way they've been living. Instead of collecting water from a contaminated source, now they may have to actually pay for it. It's clean, but they're actually having to pay money, which is a behavior change. And they're paying the money so that there's money to fix the well, right? That's right, that's right. This is money paid into the community. It's just like paying into a water utility service. And so it's investing in their community. But that's a mind shift, for sure. You know, and we have to make sure that the technology is available for them to fix. We can't be bringing in technology that isn't available in country, so that when a pipe breaks, they can find that pipe in-country and fix it, right? That's right. And they have to learn to do that themselves. That's right. It makes me think of a farming project that I was involved in where an individual brought seeds from out of country and taught these people how to grow. And then the people weren't harvesting. And they said, "Well, why aren't you harvesting?" "Well, we don't know how to eat it." Same situation with the water systems. If it's a technology that they don't know how to replace or repair, how can we expect then that they'll sustain it? So we have a lot of water projects happening all over the globe. How are we able to be in all of those places? We're not, actually. And so you bring up a really good point. Partnerships are critical in this work. We cannot do this alone. And our partners recognize that, too. They can't do it alone either. And so we align with other organizations that share the same values, that are going to the greatest need, that aren't discriminating based off of race, religion, political persuasion. They're just going where the need is and where the community is motivated to make this kind of change. And so we go through a rigorous evaluation process. We visit with them. We go in-field. And we make sure that we're aligned and that the partnership fits both of our priorities. So clean water is something a lot of people are invested in. People want to make sure that clean water is available to everyone, as it should be. For someone that may be watching that wants to get involved in this kind of initiative, what would you suggest to them? First thing is just to get educated about the issue. Understand that it's about supply and then also about behavior change. If we're really looking for sustainable solutions, it's about helping that community make the changes they need to do to have water forever. And so come to understand the different organizations out there. If they feel inclined to donate, research that organization. Make sure they know that the programs will be sustainable, that these are long-term solutions and appropriate for the foreign context they're working in. The other thing I'd suggest is, become aware of our own water supply. If water stops coming out of your tap tomorrow, what are you going to do? Where are you going to get water? What if the stores are closed? And so I'd suggest having your own supply of clean water on hand. Awesome. Del, thanks so much for talking with me about this today. I've learned a lot. I think my eyes have been opened on how to deal with the clean water problem. And long-term sustainability is the key. And that's something that we're working on with the water initiative. Absolutely. If you guys have any questions about our water initiative, feel free to visit our website, which is ldscharities.org. And if you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments.