Faiths for Safe Water supports water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) priorities in development aid and encourages faiths to unite around the religious importance of water and access to it. ¹

Overview

Faiths for Safe Water advocates for more organizations to take up water, sanitation, and hygiene protocol, or WASH, an initiative to improve the safety of drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene in developing countries. ² It advocates for petitioning members of Congress to include WASH priorities in health and development legislation and policy. ³

Faiths for Safe Water supported the Biden Administration’s decision to halt of the withdrawal of the United Sates from the World Health Organization, ⁴ a global health policy agency operating under the United Nations that was established in 1945. ⁵

In 2017, Faiths for Safe Water and other national faith-based organizations wrote to Congress, urging it to raise the international affairs budget to $58 billion. ⁶  On April 13, 2022, Faiths for Safe Water and other advocacy organizations wrote to Congress requesting that it provide at least $72.9 billion to the Department of State’s foreign operations and aid budget. ⁷

Faiths for Safe Water is one of the approximately 250 members of the Declaration for American Democracy, ⁸ a coalition of left-of-center activist groups that opposes election integrity laws, supports increasing restrictions on campaign speech, and promotes automatic voter registration. ⁹

People

Susan K. Barnett is the co-founder of Faiths for Safe Water. She is a former investigative journalist with ABC News and NBC News, founder of Cause Communications, and led communications for Global Water 2020, a three-year advocacy and acceleration initiative. ¹⁰

Rabbi Jack Bemporad is the co-founder of Faiths for Safe Water. ¹¹ Bemporad is the director of the Center for Interreligious Understanding, an ecumenical religious group that he founded in 1992. Bemporad began teaching at Vatican universities in 1998 and since 2009 has been the director of the John Paul II Center and a professor of interreligious studies at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome. ¹²

1. “Faiths For Safe Water.” Center for Interreligious Understanding. Accessed February 2, 2023. https://www.ciunow.org/programs/faiths-for-safe-water-2/.
2. “SUPPORT FOR WHO & TAKE ACTION AGAINST COVID-19.” Faiths for Safe Water. Accessed February 3, 2023. https://www.faithsforsafewater.org/.
3. “Faith-based Resources.” Faiths for Safe Water. Accessed February 3, 2023. https://www.faithsforsafewater.org/faith-based-resources.html.
4. “SUPPORT FOR WHO & TAKE ACTION AGAINST COVID-19.” Faiths for Safe Water. Accessed February 3, 2023. https://www.faithsforsafewater.org/.
5. “About WHO.” World Health Organization (WHO). Accessed February 4, 2023. https://www.who.int/about.
6. “32 Faith Organizations Urge Congress to Invest in Humanitarian Aid and Peacebuilding.” Friends Committee On National Legislation. Accessed February 4, 2023. https://www.fcnl.org/updates/2017-02/32-faith-organizations-urge-congress-invest-humanitarian-aid-and-peacebuilding.
7. “Letter to Congressional Leadership Regarding the Prioritization of Funding for State, Foreign Operations Bill in FY 2023.” InterAction. Last modified April 14, 2022. https://www.interaction.org/blog/letter-to-congressional-leadership-regarding-the-prioritization-of-funding-for-state-foreign-operations-bill-in-fy-2023/.
8. ^[1] “Declaration for American Democracy.” Declaration for American Democracy. Last modified October 20, 2022. https://dfadcoalition.org/.
9. “About.” Declaration for American Democracy. Last modified September 20, 2021. https://dfadcoalition.org/about/.
10. “Susan K. Barnett.” Think Global Health. Accessed February 4, 2023. https://www.thinkglobalhealth.org/author/susan-k-barnett.
11. “Faiths For Safe Water.” Center for Interreligious Understanding. Accessed February 2, 2023. https://www.ciunow.org/programs/faiths-for-safe-water-2/.
12. “Rabbi Jack Bemporad Biography.” Center for Interreligious Understanding. Accessed February 2, 2023. https://www.ciunow.org/about/rabbi-jack-bemporad-biography/.