Clean water is key to giving struggling communities around the world a reason to celebrate this Harvest
Staying apart to stay safe has been a simple yet hard ask over the past few months. Lockdown has looked different in different parts of the world, but what many of us have had in common is the struggle to manage the uncertainty. We’ve had to reach out for new ways to find hope, calm and connection.
WaterAid works in 28 countries around the world, to make clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene available to everyone, everywhere, transforming lives and entire communities for the better. The stories of these communities are shared by our Voices from the Field Officers, eight amazing colleagues, constantly on the move to meet people.
Basile works in Burkina Faso but instead of doing his usual job of travelling across the country learning about local communities, like many of us, he’s been stuck at home due to measures introduced to stop the spread of the pandemic.
During the lockdown, Basile has found escapism through reading and music: books for learning, entertainment and virtual travelling, and playing the guitar for fun and as meditation.
“Playing music on my guitar helps me keep myself entertained and helps me meditate,’ Basile says. ‘I use it to comfort myself in difficult times and moments of solitude. In the songs I play, there are words and sounds that advise, console or heal.”
Burkina Faso, where Basile lives and works, is a landlocked country. From October to May (and sometimes longer) no rain falls and the rivers dry up. Almost half the country live without clean water and four in five people don’t have access to a decent toilet.
WaterAid works in Burkina Faso to reach the poorest and most marginalised people with clean water, sanitation and hygiene services. Now more than ever, clean water and hygiene is vital to keep communities safe and resilient against diseases like Covid-19.
Basile has visited the community of Zabendella in Burkina Faso last year. He met Rasmata and her family and has seen the change clean water and hygiene brought to their village. Rasmata works in the fields with her husband during the rainy season and during the dry season she gardens together with 80 other women from the village to grow vegetables to sell.
In 2019, WaterAid built two wells and 12 compostable toilets in Zabendella — before that, the village had no access to clean water and toilets. The community also struggled to grow anything outside the rainy season. Soil quality in Zabendella is poor, requires watering and fertilising, but water wasn’t available and fertiliser is expensive. Families like Rasmata’s couldn’t afford it, or had to sell their animals to cover the expenses.
The community now not only has access to decent toilets but to fertiliser as well. The compostable toilets convert waste products into fertiliser, free of charge, while bringing the people of Zabendella hygiene, safety and dignity.
Rasmata’s community is now able to grow vegetables to eat and sell, to feed their families and earn an income.
Harvest is approaching and as always, it’ll be a chance to reflect on what we have, and to look back at the first half of the year and celebrate the ways we came together as a community and managed to find the hope, calm and connection we needed. And as always, it’ll be a chance to think about other communities around the world who can’t celebrate harvests.
1 in 10 people around the world don’t have clean water close to home. Lack of water prevents entire communities from being able to grow food, feed their families and earn a living. These communities are also struggling through a global health crisis without clean water to drink or wash with, and without enough food to make them strong.
This year, we have scaled up our work to install handwashing facilities in areas where people need them most, and launched handwashing campaigns to promote good hygiene habits to stop diseases like coronavirus spreading.
We’re now inviting faith groups to join WaterAid’s 2020 Harvest Appeal, to make sure the poorest communities around the world will have plentiful harvests to celebrate, can stay healthy and resilient against disease.
You can sign up for a free Harvest resource pack to receive case studies, sermon notes and an all-age talk outline, Sunday School activities, a WaterAid quiz sheet and fundraising ideas. Many activities can be done online or by families at home too.
By standing together with WaterAid this harvest time, your congregation can give other communities around the world something to truly celebrate.
Judit Palotai works in the community team at WaterAid, raising funds to support their vital project work. You’ll find more stories and information about where they work on the WaterAid UK website.
