A shorter walk for water

This work is part of a two-year project funded by Bread for the World. The project focuses on the health of mothers and children in Dulessa district, and on giving families safe drinking water. One of its main goals is to stop mothers and children from dying.

In 2019 we planned to drill two wells, each 150 metres deep and powered by solar panels. When everything goes to plan, a well like this takes about three months. Technical and geological problems meant these two took us the whole year.

The wells are in an area where people used to walk six hours there and back to collect dirty water. The job of fetching it usually fell to girls between 8 and 13 years old. We heard many painful stories about what happened to them on those trips.

Sa’ala’s story

Sa’ala told us one of those stories. Two years ago she lost her 13-year-old daughter.

One morning, as usual, her daughter left at about 5 a.m. to fetch water for the household. She went early so she could be home before the desert heat set in. She did not come back. On the way to the river she was attacked by a hyena. Only part of her body was found in the bush. Sa’ala cried the whole time she told me this.

Then she said:

“I am glad FSA drilled a well in our village, so that no more girls will be attacked by wild animals. But every time I drink water from this well, I will think of my daughter. I wish she were here to see these blessings come to our door. I wish she could have one cup of this clean water. I pray every day for the FSA team and the donors, that no tragedy like ours will happen to you or your families. You have saved many lives. No more women and girls will die fetching water from far away. Alhamdulillah.”

(Alhamdulillah means “thanks be to God.”)

I left the village that day with a broken heart.

Guret Ahmed, Founder and Executive Director