Sharing a Story from Sharmay: Water Project Has Lasting Impact on Village

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charitywater_vertical_white The following is a story provided by charity: water detailing a community that benefited from OWC’s 25th Anniversary campaign.

In the Sharmay Community in Ethiopia, people used to travel long distances down into a river to collect water. This especially affected women like Alem, who used to travel more than an hour to collect water from the river.

Now that Alem has a water point in her community, she spends no more than 10 minutes walking to get water for her and her family. She says that time she saves every day helps her focus on taking care of her children, three of whom are in school during the day and three who are still at home. What’s more, she now has time to earn extra income by starting a vegetable patch in her backyard and joining in the village’s soil and water conservation efforts.

When describing the changes the project has made in her life, Alem exclaimed, “there is no good thing more than water!”

The community’s WASH (Water and Sanitation Hygiene) Committee agrees. They also shared the impact the well has made by decreasing the number of illnesses – especially amongst the community’s children – now that they no longer collect water from a river shared with their animals.

Here’s Alem using her community’s new project, funded by OWC’s 25th Anniversary campaign:

Alem_CharityWater

Here are other villages that have benefitted from OWC’s campaign:

ADIJEMBAL COMMUNITY
Country: Ethiopia
People Served: 275
Project Type: Drilled Well
Completed: Aug 2014

SERDITSIFRO COMMUNITY
Country: Ethiopia
People Served: 300
Project Type: Drilled Well
Completed: Aug 2014

MISTAY CHEW COMMUNITY
Country: Ethiopia
People Served: 250
Project Type: Drilled Well
Completed: Aug 2014

GEREB HASLE/GOLAGULTO COMMUNITY
Country: Ethiopia
People Served: 300
Project Type: Drilled Well
Completed: Aug 2014

These villages now have access to safe and clean drinking water and have been trained on safe hygiene practices and basic maintenance of their water project. But there are still many, many people in need of safe drinking water. To find out more on how you can help, visit charity: water.