Dick Moeller

After a 40+ year successful career as a technology entrepreneur, I started Water to Thrive in 2008 as outgrowth from a summer Sunday School session on world hunger and poverty.

Water to Thrive is a faith-based nonprofit that works to bring clean, safe water to rural Africa, primarily in Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania. In 7+ years, Water to Thrive has funded approximately 650 projects providing water to over 350,000 rural Africans who have struggled for a clean drink of water every day.

Tigist Muto is 12 years old and lives in Odahe village in southern Ethiopia. She explains the situation before and after the water project came to her community: “€œI used to travel one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon to take water from Logita river. After that, I used to be late from school though my home is quite near to the school. I always felt tired after long travel carrying water from the river. And the water from the river is not clean and we often got sick drinking that water. Now thanks to God we got water in our village and it is clean. The well is in the school compound and we can drink water when we are need, while we are in the school, saving us many hour every week.”

Water is fundamental to life and we so often take it for granted. The people we serve see it as a true blessing and the access to clean water changes everything – health, education for young girls, social justice for women and economic growth for the whole community. For an investment of $5,000, we can bring clean sustainable water to a community of 500 for 20 years. It is a low risk, high payback investment for our supporters that truly changes lives.

The creation of Water to Thrive has been an incredible example of continuous learning. Most of all, it could not have happened without the 40 years of experience from my professional career. But every time I meet the people we serve, I learn so much from them about what is important in life and how to be grateful for the simple things in life.