A Letter from South Africa: Clean Water & The SJC

By Kent Linder, International Program Director

This week in South Africa, I’m working with the Social Justice Campaign (SJC), which we support by funding their efforts to get clean water and sanitation to parts of the townships that are in desperate need of attention from the city.

Together, we distributed hundreds of newsletters, which they wittily call the “Toilet Paper,” and worked to make more people aware of their efforts. This task took us through many sewage-filled pathways where children were playing — unfortunately not a rare occurrence. By working to get the city to provide clean water and sanitation services, SJC hopes to increase safety and reduce disease. For example, tuberculosis is a very serious issue and a very common coinfection for people living with HIV/AIDS.

Despite all of the difficulties, SJC is making great progress in several areas of their work, including improving the state of sanitation. It has not been easy, but they have a large group of committed volunteers.