Living Magazine Summer 2016 | Page 30

WELL N E SS A DVO CAT E S S E RVE The Garden he Hardie family has a long history of adventure and humanitarian efforts all over the world, but they have a special place in their hearts for Mozambique. Ginna (Hardie) Cross (now a Blue Diamond with dōTERRA) volunteered to be a nurse in Mozambique in 2007. When her family visited her, everyone fell in love with the people and the culture. Now in 2016, Josh and Sarah Hardie own a farm there called the Deep Roots farm, and, with Ginna’s help, they have big plans for what they call the Garden Well Project. T WHAT IS THE GARDEN WELL PROJECT? In the most basic terms, the Garden Well project is focused on water. Without water, very little can be done to change the circumstances most Mozambicans face. Well Project Many people have to travel miles to have clean water to drink. Ginna elaborates, “Many women’s lives are consumed in getting water for their families, children too. When the children have to go and haul the water, they can’t go to school because it takes up the whole day. If wells are too far, people often dig sink holes for water, which is a huge source of sickness and disease. They are also not able to irrigate or grow food without water. That results in a lot of months of hunger for a lot of people.” Originally, Josh and Sarah started a farm called the Deep Roots farm to support the efforts of another humanitarian business organization called Communities of Fusion. The well project wasn’t even a reality yet. But, in 2015, the purpose of the farm quickly grew. It had been a bad year for the crops in their region as heavy rains had destroyed the plants. At that point, Josh and Sarah struggled to know what to do. By July, many local people were already hungry, though the hungry months were not usually until November. After talking to the people about what they needed most, they deter­ mined that digging wells was the answer. FUNDRAISING FOR THE WELL Sensing that there were many others that could help them in their cause, Sarah and Ginna focused on fundraising efforts so that they could put in the first well. Sarah, a gifted photographer, put together a video to help get the word out about the project. Sarah says, “We all have this desire to use our gifts for something greater than just making a living. Over time, we’ve each seen how all of our gifts and abilities are being used with this project in a way that we never even dreamed.”