By Kathleen P. Mahoney | Fundraising and Communications Coordinator
Patricia is a widowed mother of four and a proud member of Team Hygiene & Culture.
“I am so proud to see our children attend school on time now and be able to grow up appropriately. Every single time I see the water site [managed by Hygiene & Culture] it makes me happy but it reminds me how we abused our children by making them wake up early and walk two hours to fetch water. A five-year-old child can only carry seven liters of water and you could not allow them to take a shower if you had no hope that someone else could go back to get more water for lunch. Sometimes children would complain about being overwhelmed. Imagine being that child who has to wake up every single morning and find water. How is he or she going to grow up well physically and mentally? It’s impossible.”
Patricia also talked about how the lack of water access affects a family’s income:
“If a cow does not have water to drink, how is it going to produce enough milk for the family and for the market?”
Prior to Hygiene & Culture’s launch, households often spent Rwf 300 per jerry can of water (approximately 35 cents). For women who often make less than $2 a day, buying water for their families was often a real but necessary hardship. Now those same women pay only Rwf 30 (3 cents), a tremendous savings that these same women can now use to buy more water for farm animals and pay school fees for their children. Further those savings are enabling women to do even more for their families: the team has helped women in Nyakusi cell outside Kigali, Rwanda, join a lending circle. The group has grown from 213 women to 384!
The team has also helped women understand the impact kitchen gardens can have on child nutrition. Two team members personally teach community members how to start gardens even on very small plots of land. Nine households now have thriving gardens with more to come.
Finally, Hygiene & Culture has provided training and workshops on gender-based violence and conflict resolution to 160 couples, effectively changing attitudes and behaviors that are enabling women to live without fear of their husbands.
Your gift – of any amount – will help transform the lives of vulnerable women like Patricia and the other women in Nyakusi. Please, support Global Grassroots today. Thank you so much!
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