Just after 5 a.m. in the Mweebo community in southern Zambia, Nelly Mulavu began her lonely trek through the middle of thick bush to fetch water from the only stream in area. This was her first daily morning chore.

Suddenly, a strange man appeared from the bush, a few meters away from where she was standing. “The man looked suspicious,” says Nelly later. “My heart froze in fear. I wondered if the man could be up to something, knowing deep down in my heart what had happened to several other women in the past.” Almost immediately he grabbed her, and a serious battle ensued between the two.

Fozia regrets the stories she made up to avoid going to school. “I mourned [the death of] my relative” or “I had to take care of my feeble grandma,” she would say to the teacher. Fozia is 15 years old and is an 8th grade student at Mariye Junior Secondary School. The school has 45 teachers and 1,134 students that attend in two shifts, one early in the day, and a second group in the afternoon.

The sound of the water is beautiful, bringing peace. And if you close your eyes, you can almost feel it—the cold drops coming from the mountain, straight to your home. The sound can bring life and joy to a community. The sound is heard in the community of Lanita Verde in Honduras.

Here is where we find Maria Sarmiento (40). Green trees surround her home and a small river runs nearby. She lives with her husband, her daughter Marixa (24) and her two beautiful granddaughters: Keylin (7) and Francisca, who is a 12-month-old baby.

Mugombwa, a refugee camp in southern Rwanda, currently hosts over 10,400 Congolese refugees. Gabriella, a 7-year-old girl in Mugombwa, smiles every time she washes her hands after using the toilet because she believes good handwashing is an effective way to prevent the spread of diseases, including COVID-19, Ebola, intestinal worms and diarrhea. The camp’s water supply system was constructed last year and has the capacity to serve the entire camp, plus the neighboring host communities.

Water from a rusted pipe flows down through the grass to a nearby swamp, leaving a trail of orange sediment. “That is the iron in the water. It has rusted the pipe and turned the grass and soil orange,” says Humphrey, a World Vision WASH officer.

“The water in the ground is bad! You cannot drink it, clean with it or even use it for agriculture,” Francis, the chairperson of the Tusinbude household cluster explains as community members sigh in agreement.

World Vision’s expertise in the prevention of the spread of infectious disease has never been more important than during the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the most important activities to prevent the spread of the virus is to ensure that people have a way to wash their hands and understand why it’s so critical. And of course, you can’t wash your hands effectively without clean water. 

It is early in the day and I have already lost count of how many times I have needed to use water. I have so far needed water to brush my teeth, bathe, prepare breakfast, drink coffee, and quench my thirst. With the various tasks that make up my morning routine, I hardly ever stop to think, “Is this water safe to consume?”

I don’t question if there will be enough water to fill my cup. I don’t have to travel a long distance to access my water, and I never wonder if my short walk to the tap will be dangerous.

And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.
Matthew 10:42

Refreshing.

For a hike in the mountains, we always take water.  The Mad Creek Trail in Colorado is a lovely, well maintained trail, mostly level, and partly in shade.  There are no large loose rocks to turn your ankles, no rivers to cross.  Wildlife are rarely seen mid-day when most people make the hike, and we saw only healthy dogs of all shapes and breeds bounding along with their owners.  We walked a total of four and a half miles in almost three hours, exhausting our out-of-shape bodies.

“Water has given me hope. I’m a strong woman. Thanks to World Vision and clean water, there are a lot of strong women here.”

Esperance, a Rwandan mother, hasn’t always been able to say this. As one of the 785 million people around the world without clean water access, she struggled to improve every aspect of her life.

“Imagine the sweltering heat in this Kerio Valley, all the sweating, and then there is no water to take a bath as you go to class as a teacher, it is very pathetic,” explains Nancy Chebii, a school teacher at Ayatya Primary school, in the Bartabwa Area program.

Nancy shared her story as we sat in the shade of an acacia tree talking with the area water committee. It is almost noon and it is already very hot due to the scorching heat that the area is known for.