Bread and Water for Africa^® began in 1986 as a project of Christian Relief Services to promote positive change in Africa by supporting grassroots initiatives for self-sufficiency, health and education.

On December 30, 1997 Bread and Water for Africa®, the Virginia-incorporated charity headquartered in Fairfax County, became an international nongovernmental organization.

The charity is still an affiliate of Christian Relief Services and shares office space and administrative support in order to spend more of its financial resources on the programs in Africa.

We receive funding from wonderfully supportive and caring individuals, family and community foundations, corporations, Christian Relief Services, generous Federal employees through the Combined Federal Campaign, generous state employees through state employee campaigns, wills and bequests, and employer matching contributions.

During the thirteen year history of the organization, over $4,000,000.00 in grant funding has been provided to grassroots, African organizations in Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Grant funding has been provided with an emphasis on supporting projects that provide education (construction of schools, vocational training centers, literacy programs, and provisions for teachers and supplies), healthcare (construction of clinics, mobile clinics, and a hospital, provisions for doctors, nurses, and supplies, and HIV/AIDS education and outreach), clean water (the construction of water pipelines, water wells, pit latrines, protection of local water sources and education about the importance of clean water), agriculturual self-sufficiency (livestock sharing, agricultural skills training, the provision of supplies and women's cooperative gardening), orphan care (provision for education, food, shelter, medical expenses, and infrastructure), and women's micro-credit and micro-enterprise programs.

Major accomplishments include:

• The construction of a water pipeline serving over 30,000 residents in rural districts of Uganda
• Construction and operation of nine Maternal Health and Under-Five clinics in rural Sierra Leone
• The construction of twelve clean water wells for communities in Kenya, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Zambia, Ethiopia and Mozambique
• The construction and operation of three orphan care programs in Kenya, Mozambique and Zambia
• The construction of six primary schools in Kenya, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Zambia and Zimbabwe
• The creation and support of women's literacy programs in Ethiopia, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe
• The creation and support of agriculture self-sufficiency programs cultivating over 1,000 acres of land total in Ethiopia, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Uganda
• The creation of a computer training center in rural Ethiopia
• The construction of the Kipkeino School, Eldoret, Kenya