About Watering Oasis Global
Working Alongside Communities to Create Sustainable Change
Watering Oasis Global, Inc. (WOG) is a U.S.-based philanthropic organization with a global mission to strengthen disadvantaged communities through holistic, sustainable development. Our work connects education, health and wellness, behavioral health education, agriculture and food security, water and environmental sustainability, economic opportunity, and community capacity building.
Our Story
How Watering Oasis Global Began
Watering Oasis Global grew from a longstanding commitment to community service, education, empowerment, and creating opportunities for individuals and families. Its roots in community-based work in the United States have developed into a broader international mission focused on sustainable community development.
Over time, WOG's work has developed through community relationships, education, service, and collaboration. Today, the organization seeks to connect people and communities with knowledge, resources, institutions, and partners capable of helping create lasting change in the United States and internationally.
Ethiopia has become an important focus of WOG's international work and development. Through relationships with local organizations, educational institutions, and community leaders, WOG is developing community-centered initiatives with particular attention to Wolaita Sodo, Arba Minch, and surrounding communities.
Rather than imposing solutions from outside, WOG seeks to work alongside communities, recognizing local knowledge, leadership, culture, and community ownership as essential to sustainable progress.
Our Mission
"Watering Oasis Global, Inc. is a philanthropic organization committed to creating holistic social, economic, educational, health, and community-development opportunities that bring hope and encouragement to disadvantaged communities in the United States, Africa, and throughout the world. Through sustainable programs, strategic partnerships, education, and community empowerment, WOG helps individuals and communities seeking a better life build pathways toward greater opportunity, self-sufficiency, and long-term well-being."
Our Vision
"A world in which individuals, families, and communities have access to the knowledge, opportunities, partnerships, and sustainable resources needed to build healthier, stronger, more self-sufficient futures."
Core Values
What Guides Our Work
Community Ownership
We believe lasting change is built from within. Communities lead; we support.
Sustainability
Every program is designed for long-term impact — not short-term relief.
Integrity
We operate with transparency, accountability, and respect in all relationships.
Collaboration
We multiply impact through strategic partnerships with local and international organizations.
Equity
We prioritize the most vulnerable and work to remove barriers to opportunity.
Education
We believe education is the foundation of sustainable community development.
Our Approach
Holistic, Community-Led Development
Watering Oasis Global takes a holistic approach to community development — recognizing that education, health, food security, water, economic opportunity, and environmental resilience are deeply interconnected. Addressing one without the others produces incomplete and unsustainable results.
We work WITH communities, not FOR them. This means listening first, designing programs collaboratively, building local capacity, and ensuring that communities have the skills, resources, and ownership to sustain progress long after WOG's direct involvement ends.
Our approach emphasizes local partnerships, community leadership, and evidence-based programming. We invest in the people, institutions, and systems that communities themselves identify as priorities.
Listen First
We begin every engagement by listening to community members, leaders, and partners to understand local priorities, assets, and challenges.
Design Together
Programs are co-designed with communities — ensuring relevance, cultural appropriateness, and local ownership from the start.
Build Capacity
We invest in local leaders, organizations, and systems so communities can sustain and expand progress independently.
Measure Impact
We establish measurable objectives, gather feedback, evaluate progress, and use what we learn to strengthen programs and future initiatives.
Why Our Work Matters
The Need Is Real — and Interconnected
Communities facing economic hardship rarely experience challenges in isolation. Educational opportunity, health and wellness, food security, access to water, environmental conditions, employment, and community capacity are closely connected.
In Ethiopia, WOG's developing work recognizes the importance of locally informed solutions that strengthen education, health, agriculture, youth opportunity, environmental resilience, and community institutions.
Communities in the United States also face interconnected challenges involving educational opportunity, behavioral health, economic stability, and access to supportive resources.
WOG seeks to help bridge the distance between resources and need by bringing communities, institutions, expertise, and strategic partners together around sustainable solutions.
Leadership
Leadership
Dr. Russell Craig — Founder and Executive Leadership
Dr. Russell Craig provides strategic leadership for Watering Oasis Global, bringing experience spanning education, psychology, behavioral health, organizational leadership, technology, community development, and international higher education. His work has included university teaching and academic leadership in Ethiopia as well as behavioral-health and community-based work in the United States. He holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and a Master of Public Administration.
WOG also works collaboratively with organizational representatives, community leaders, institutional partners, and local implementation partners in support of its mission.
Our Operations
U.S. and International Operations
United States
Watering Oasis Global's U.S.-based activities support the organization's philanthropic, educational, community-development, partnership-building, fundraising, and administrative mission. WOG seeks opportunities to strengthen education, behavioral health awareness, community well-being, and economic opportunity while building partnerships that can support sustainable programs domestically and internationally.
Ethiopia & International
Ethiopia is a central focus of WOG's developing international work. WOG works through relationships with community organizations, educational institutions, and local leaders to develop sustainable initiatives responsive to community priorities. Current geographic areas of focus include Wolaita Sodo, Arba Minch, and surrounding communities. Documented organizational relationships include CHANGE MAKERS ON THE LIFE OF CHILDREN AND WOMEN, Children Cross Connection (CCC), and Sawla Poly Technic College (Ethiopia). WOG's broader mission is global, with future expansion guided by community need, appropriate partnerships, organizational capacity, and sustainable implementation.