In the developing world, the burden of collecting water falls specifically on women. The work is grueling and without reward. On average, women walk 6.5 miles to a water source. In countries in Africa, this average scales past 10 miles. Dry seasons increase mileage even more. The bodies of these women are broken from the endless task. There is no opportunity to rest or take days off; bone fractures and muscle tears are part of the job. Heavy water jugs are tied to their backs and balanced on their heads. Women often develop curvature of the spine along with a crushed or deformed pelvis. These conditions both create complications or even death in childbirth.

What makes matters worse? Fear. Women have to deal with the fear that water collection instills. The water the women collect keeps their families alive in the short run, but due to the bacteria in the water, it harms and potentially kills them in the long run. These women know they are feeding their families with disease. There is very little these women can control when taking care of the people they love.

The fear escalates past health most days, to general safety. Women become easy targets for rape and abuse on their journey to fetch water. They are completely vulnerable. No one will hear their call; no one will fight their fight.

Hope is hard to come by. These women are captured by this task and the only thing they can train their daughters to do is water fetching. Time is a scarce resource. There is no time for women to be educated, nor the money that education requires. Families must depend on the father for any income, and even that is not enough. Escaping poverty seems impossible. The fear that their children will have the same life as they have is daunting.

And so one thing holds them back from their true potential: Water.

In these countries, some mothers wait until their child’s 5th birthday to give them a name. To you, this seems absurd, but to a mother who has lost so many of her children to diseases caused by water; it is reality. Diarrhea, due to unsafe drinking water, is the second leading cause of death among children under the age of 5 in developing countries. According to UNICEF, a child dies every 15 seconds because of water borne illnesses.

Did you know that over 60% of the 113 million children NOT enrolled in school are GIRLS. Of the 113 million children currently not enrolled in school worldwide, 60% are girls. This is due largely to the fact that young girls are needed to help collect the family’s water supply. Without education, poverty escalates in generations to come. Even children enrolled in school have spotty attendance due to frequent illnesses. A lack of safe water also means that children cannot properly wash or care for common diseases like scabies and eye infections such as trachoma. The effects are blindness and a limited life.

With this much time and health stolen by water collection and illness, a child in the developing world has little time to just be a child.

What if:

• Women didn’t have to walk miles to obtain their families water?
• Women didn’t have to pass by 5 broken hand pumps to get to the one that was working?
• Women had clean water that actually healed their family’s ailments?
• Women could start a business to contribute to their family’s income?
• Women and children didn’t have to live in fear of being raped or abused?
• Children could be educated?
• Children weren’t destroying their bodies by the weight of carrying water.
• Children weren’t dying of diarrhea and other waterborne illnesses?
• Children had time to be children, to run, to play and to use their imagination?

What if YOU could be trained to teach and empower them to change the lives of their communities?