Life made easy through clean water
Life made easy through clean water
Sugna resident of Village Yousuf Thebo, one of the twenty villages facilitated in Khipro WASH II project. Sugna is 37 years old and has three children. Her husband, Tekam, is a farmer living and working as a tenant sharecropper in the fields of a local landlord. Sugna was spending four to five hours on a daily basis collecting water for her family from a canal water channel located several kilometers from her village. A large amount of her time was spent waiting in queue as the point is used by women and girls from several villages. Her three children are young and were unable to assist her in water collection and the amount of water she collected daily was barely sufficient to meet her household’s consumption requirements. Her daily routine left her fatigued and with little time for other responsibilities.
Commenting on her situation she said “Collecting water for the house took up most of my time and energy. My husband wanted my help in the field and my three young children obviously needed my attention, but, unfortunately, I did not have the time and energy that these responsibilities really needed”.
Sugna had no concept of menstrual hygiene and its proper management. “Women in our village including myself had no understanding of menstrual hygiene until we attended the session given by the female staff member of Pak Mission Society. However, she quickly added, “even if I knew about menstrual hygiene, how could I worry about my personal cleanliness when we did not even have enough water to drink and cook?
With the support of Humedica International and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Pak Mission Society addressed the problem of accessibility and availability of water by installing a hand pump in the village premises.
“Now, I do not have to worry about water for the family; clean water is readily available at my doorstep! I can give more time to my children and assisting my husband in the field. Being free from the problems of water collection, I am thinking about getting involved in making handicrafts for income generation. Pak Mission Society has solved many issues for the women of this village and we all are truly grateful”.
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