Thursday I visited the Blood:Water Mission office in Franklin, Tenn. on a whim. Blood:Water Mission is an organization established by the band Jars of Clay in concept about three years ago, but in physical drive only about eight months ago.
Their purpose is to take a “community-centered approach to AIDS that includes establishing basic conditions necessary for health, providing vital medical care and clean water, working toward social equality, addressing the constraints on poverty, and empowering communities to take ownership of their own long-term healthy development.’
Their mission: “To tangibly reduce the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, to promote clean blood and clean water in Africa, and to build equitable, sustainable and personal community links.”
Their vision: “To eradicate AIDS and the injustice that perpetuates it through personal and communal transformation.”
We’ve all been introduced to the numbers and statistics of deaths in Africa, or at least the small hint of knowledge that AIDS is heavily present there and it is causing deaths, whether we know how many there truly are. I remember when Live Aid 8 was going on this past summer that I wasn’t actually a fan of the idea at the beginning, I mean, I wasn’t opposed to a bunch of celebrities standing up and promoting a cause, but I felt like we need more than celebrities. In a way I feel like I was right, but at the same time I was strongly wrong.
More people tuned and listened to U2, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Jars and others join together to sing in eight different countries about the need for support. Now, I don’t know what these celebrities have given other than air time toward the cause. At the time, and even still now, I felt that if the celebrities really wanted to do something to fight AIDS in Africa and demand more US financial support, then they could start by selling all but one of their homes that they are, downsize that one to a realistic size for what they really need, then take the millions of dollars from just those adjustments and give toward the cause. But it’s not my place to judge their financial giving when I am not willing to give as much myself, unless I had millions to give – something I was convicted of when deciding how to use a jackpot PowerBall winning, if I ever got one.
The thing about Blood:Water is that it is an opportunity to give, and not only give toward a cause for research, but toward a physical life changing cause that you see results of. This is not only an AIDS project, but a fight against poverty and against famine in Africa.
BWM recently started the 1000 Wells Project with the goal to raise enough money to build a clean water well in a different village in Africa.
When I visited the office Thursday, all I knew about the mission was that it was started by Jars, was for a good cause and mainly the information I gave you above from the brochure I picked up at a Derek Webb concert in Florence, Ala. back in November that my friend Adam Wright opened at.
Since then, I have stared at the brochure next to my bed and read it a few times, browsed the group’s website and read the same information over and over again. I have started to develop a “heart” for the cause, but I put that in quotes, because I think it is truly just an interest and not really a heart, but maybe a desire for a heart for it.
I finally was pushed to visit Thursday morning. I had the day off from work, but went into the office early in the morning to update a few things, while I was there I again looked at the BWM website and also took a look at Donald Miller’s site, where he had added a post about tithing and mentioned a quote from BWM Executive Director Jena Lee that I had heard and read many times: “$1 = One year of water for an African.”
I decided I’d give Jena a call and head up and meet her. I didn’t know that she just flew back from Kenya the day before. I debated the whole trip to Franklin whether or not to go by there, but finally, as I approached the Cool Springs exit, I called got an answer: “Blood:Water Mission, this is Adrian.”
I had to think quickly and decide what in the world to say. “Hi Adrian, my name is Chris and I live in Pulaski. I’m in the Franklin area today and was wondering if you had a office nearby to stop in and find out more about the project.”
“How dumb was that” I thought. I could have come up with something better to say or a better way to say it. Anyway, Adrian told me where their office was and it was right next to the Cool Springs shopping area that I was going to. I had been a block from the office many times and had no clue it was there.
Adrian and I talked for a while until Jena arrived from her meeting to prepare for a Board of Directors meeting the following day and go over her latest trip.
Through talking to Adrian I realized that this project was really in its early stages. I was unsure before whether it had been around for a few years, or was just starting up. It is just starting up. They moved into their donated office space in the fall. My previous knowledge was that BWM only had one full time person, Jena. Adrian came on staff in December because of the increasing numbers of calls and checks flowing in. She caught me up to date about the current state of the project. 58 wells have currently been built, and the fundraising didn’t really begin until this past summer.
The cost of each well could be as little as $300 or as large as $3,000 to build depending on the village, location in the village and how much digging and support must be done to build it.
Those numbers are easy to grasp really. That means that 1,000 Wells can be built for roughly $300,000 to $3 million. Looking back at my PowerBall breakdown, I was willing to give $54 million of the $136 million jack pot, had I won, to the group…that would be close to 18,000 wells at a minimum…Wow!
Here’s another interesting number. BWM currently has on their website that Americans spend three billion dollars each year on Easter candy. That’s enough spent on candy to celebrate Christ’s resurrection that could build at the minimum 100,000 wells! Again, interesting numbers.
Now, I don’t have the millions to give, but what is possible is setting back money each month till you reach $300 or $3,000 in a year and give that…even giving $20 a month, could almost be enough to buy a small well, or if ten people did that, to build one well I the roughest terrain.
These are numbers that are easy to grasp. Numbers that are realistic approaches to solving the problem…well, at least to help the problem.
I may sound all gung-ho on this, but I’m really not there yet, but am working toward caring much about it.
Jena just arrived from Kenya. The last time she went was months ago when a well was built. During that visit photos were taken of a boy named Joseph. Joseph had sores all over his legs from malnourishment and other disease in the area. I do not know if he had HIV or AIDS, but with such sores, the open wounds would be an easy reception site for the immune disabling virus. Relevant magazine did a story on the mission and Jena’s visit building the well. There was a photo of Joseph and his legs.
Jena took the magazine with her this time to Kenya. While she was there she saw a boy come near her who she recognized but without sores, a boy who was wearing the same T-shirt as he was months ago. She gave the magazine to Joseph, as he took a look at the first photograph he has ever seen of himself and first magazine he has ever held.
Jena’s walls in her office are mostly bare except for a photo of her and Colin Powell that sits by her desk that is with the exception of the wall to her left of her desk if you were sitting at it. On that wall, posters about AIDS and BWM are up in a collage, but also included are drawings from kids. I did not ask Jena about the drawings, although I wish I had, but most likely these are drawings from the children she has visited over the past year in numerous villages across Africa, possibly the same children in the photographs surrounding the drawings on the wall.
It was a good visit to find out more about the people behind the scenes, see what they have, learn how little money goes toward office supplies and salary, and how it almost all goes to the project, something that may not be true with all organizations.
Adrian is a 2005 graduate of Oklahoma Baptist University in Oklahoma City. Jena was a senior political science major in Washington in 2003 when she was giving a lecture on AIDS and told she should meet with Jars the following week when they will be on campus. She was hired not too long after.
The driving daily force in the project on this side of the Atlantic is a group of people in their 20s, something more encouraging than a group of Baby Boomers working for the cause.
“We have a big task at hand, and we need you to join us in this effort. We believe that knowing, loving and acting are the necessary steps for change. YOU have something to give. Would you please join us?” – Jena Lee
For more information, log onto www.bloodwatermission.com and www.1000wells.com
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