How long did that take you? twenty seconds, thirty tops....?
The average rural Kenyan woman walks up to seven kilometers, multiple times a day to fill a 20ltr plastic canister full of water for her family. SEVEN kilometers, when was the last time you walked seven kilometers? Let alone whilst carrying a large container of semi clean water on your head or if you're lucky pulling it on a rickety hand trolly. Women and girls are the water haulers of the world
I do walk seven kilometers on a regular basis, but I do this out of choice, not necessity, and never am I carrying anything heavier than my iphone. I walk this distance two or three times a week. Not two or three times a day - every day.
A human can live three weeks without food, but only three days without water.
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| Would you want your child to drink this? |
Water really is the fuel we can not live without, but it must be disease free, or we are just drinking a lethal cocktail of disease and bacteria. The irony of it is, those that work the hardest for this life source are the ones dying of water borne diseases.
Globally over 4500 children die daily due to unsafe water, that is 1,642,500 children a year...
A child born in Europe or the United States is 520 times less likely to die from diarrhoeal disease than an infant in sub-Saharan Africa - UNICEF - Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
So what are we doing about it? Shrugging our shoulders and discounting it as too big a problem to face, or quietly thinking "It's so big somebody must be doing something"
It's my belief and one held by many, that safe drinking water is the foundation to building a better future for the worlds Developing Nations. Time and again I've crowed that education is road out of poverty, and I still believe that whole heartedly, but ask yourself this......
"how can a child ever step foot on that road, if they are too sick to attend school? Sick, dehydrated and possibly dying due to water borne disease."
Many of my friends, family and colleagues have generously purchased an amazing personal water filtration device called the LifeStraw each LifeStraw will have a profound effect on the well-being of a child living at the Gioto Garbage Slum. One LifeStraw alone equates to three years safe drinking water for a child, one year for an adult, I am honoured to be delivering 100 these personally in just a few weeks time.
As fantastic as the LifeStraw is, it is still just a bandaid on a much bigger problem. And that's where I would like to focus my attention. Before I've even set foot in Africa, this rural Kenyan community, one I had never even heard of twelve months ago, has won my heart. The images I've seen and the research I've carried out, have sparked something deep inside me. I need to find a way to develop a clean water initiative, one that will enable these children to drink, cook and wash with clean, safe water, to live a life free of cholera, typhoid and intestinal worms such as Ascariasis to name but a few. Is that really too much to ask?
How am I going to do this? I'm not entirely sure, but why not join me on the next part of my journey, and maybe we could make a difference together.
"It's always the right time to do the right thing"
Asante.
Jacq
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