What starts with water… changes a whole community.

Our vision at HOPE Missions is simple: provide hope and improve lives through clean water, education, and building healthy communities. We are a non-profit supported by individuals, businesses, and churches across the United States. We are driven by the conviction that our faith has put on our hearts to spread the love of Jesus by putting his teachings of loving our neighbors and caring for the poor into practice.

We do this first and foremost by installing bio-sand water filters in remote villages in Ethiopia. These filters not only save lives by providing families and communities with clean drinking water but they allow us to build trust and relationships with the communities we serve alongside. We believe healthy mission work has nothing to do with making ourselves feel good, or just providing short term relief. Rather the work we do, is and always will be, grounded in seeing those we serve with as equal and being in long term relationship with them.

These relationships then allow the communities to share with us, their hopes and dreams, and begin the process of us working together to make those hopes a reality. For many it’s giving their children the ability to hope and move towards a brighter future. We do this by starting schools, and creating the first educated generation in a village.

Finally, we understand our role in the work we do, not to be saviors or give hand-outs, but to build partnerships that lead to sustainable changes in the people and villages we work with. It’s not about how we can improve a community but about how we can help and empower people to improve their own communities. This is why our water filters are built using simple techniques and resources local villagers can learn and have access to. It’s why the Kondala School was primarily built by the parents of the students it would serve, and why construction did not begin until we had a 5 year self-sustainability plan in place. And it is this philosophy that allows us to constantly grow and reach new people and villages who are just as much in need of hope as those we are currently working with.

Thank you for taking the time to learn a little bit more about what makes us who we are and why we do the work we do.