Mother with torn ACL walks 2 hours, carries 45-pound water for children
There is nothing more notorious than Texas football and Texas summers. As a football player who has spent more than half my life in two-a-day summer practices, I know what it means to exert yourself in the hottest temperatures — when it feels like the sun is following you around like a shadow. These practices are where you earn your spot, so every summer was a chance to dig deep and leave it all on the field.
In those moments of pure exertion, I thought I was strong, I thought I was dedicated — that is, until I met a woman in Zambia that completely changed my definition of what it means to be both.
Susan is part of a small village so remote it makes my hometown of Mexia, Texas, seem like Houston by comparison. She is also a mother to small children. Each day, to make sure her children have water to drink, she and the other women in her village walk up to two hours round trip to draw water. While visiting last Spring, I followed them on their journey as they carried the 45-pound buckets of water balanced on their heads. I later learned Susan was suffering from a torn ACL and meniscus — an injury that sidelined me for months in 2015. But she didn’t have that choice. Her children were counting on her.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Today is World Water Day. Like many awareness days, the Internet will be filled with statements and social media posts by government officials, companies, and organizations highlighting the importance of clean water and raising awareness for the 2 billion people who still don’t have access to safe drinking water. Twelve seasons in the NFL has taught me that it’s not what we say in the locker room, but the actions we take on the field that matter most.
Today, 1,000 kids under 5 years old will die from drinking unclean water. Across the globe, 26% of deaths in newborn children come from unclean birth and a lingering lack of clean water. Action cannot wait. Unless we end the global water crisis, we cannot hope to end extreme poverty or build a peaceful world. We need advocacy and action by individuals and continued investments in clean water by our nation’s leaders.
Today, I’m joining World Vision, a leading humanitarian organization and the world’s largest non-governmental supplier of clean water, in urging Congress to continue to fund clean water programs that save lives and empower the world’s most vulnerable communities. Through private donations and government grants, World Vision will bring clean water to 8,640 more people today (one new person every 10 seconds). In 2023 alone, World Vision helped empower 3.1 million people through clean water.
Last March, my wife, Jessica, and I, had the honor of traveling to Zambia with World Vision to build three water wells after personally funding two and activating our friends and network to fund a third. It was on this trip that we met Susan and her family. We also had the opportunity to visit a local health clinic in another village that depends on clean water from that well to assist in the hygienic care of the villagers it serves.
Today, each well is providing 2,800 gallons of clean water for as many as 300 people and is bringing us closer to our goal of reaching every person where World Vision works in Zambia with clean water by 2025.
The ability to donate was a blessing, but inviting fans, friends, and family, and leaning on founders, teammates, and operators to serve alongside us was incredibly special. Now, along with World Vision, I’m asking our leaders to also be our partners in multiplying the impact and continuing the transformational work.
We can all play a part in ending extreme poverty and the clean water crisis for good. One of the easiest ways to make an impact this World Water Day is to share your support with your members of Congress. It takes about a minute to send your leaders a prefilled email.
Join me in asking your leaders to support life-saving clean water programs: worldvision.org/beachum
Kelvin Beachum is a 13 year NFL veteran who plays for the Arizona Cardinals.
