“You Brought The Water of Life to These Families”: Our Origin Story at Aqua Vita Creative

Seventeen years ago, our first client at Aqua Vita was David Stephenson, a missionary to Bolivia who was working in communities in the Altiplano of Bolivia. At 14,000 feet in elevation, water – especially clean, potable water – was scarce. In their community, 1 in 5 children were dying before the age of 5 due to micro-bacteria in their water supply.

When we heard this story, we knew we had to act. We partnered with David to raise the money and find the talent to locate and drill for water, install a potable water well, and improve their sanitation facilities.

Within two months, we had raised enough money to bring clean water to 2,000 families. Afterwards, David told us: “In Bolivia, there’s an expression: ‘Agua Vida: Water is life.’ You brought the Water of Life to these families.”

We’ve been Aqua Vita ever since, and that’s our first Core Value: To work with people who are the water of life for those they serve, and to be the water of life for them in turn, helping them to grow in their mission and purpose.

Since that first project, that organization has grown into Engineers in Action, which has gone on to do projects on several continents using thousands of volunteer engineers. Each year, EIA improves the lives of over 20,000 people by helping them build critical infrastructure in their communities.