This story was included in World Vision’s annual WASH Campaign Report, which WaterAfrica received this month:
“At some point in time, I almost left my husband to go back to my parents,” recalled Irene Mweemba, 46, who lives with her husband, Raynold, and the three youngest of their six children in Mukumwa village in the Hamaundu ADP.
Irene grew up in Hangumba village, which is about four miles from where she currently lives. During her childhood, she was privileged to access water from a nearby borehole, and her parents taught her to grow nutritious vegetables in gardens they cultivated around the borehole.
However, the situation changed when Irene married Raynold, whose village had no borehole at the time. The nearest water source was a seasonal stream, which dried up in August, forcing them to dig shallow wells along the riverbanks. “The nearest stream would take us about an hour to get there, and I used to experience chest pains because of walking through the cold to fetch water and carrying loads of water on my head. It was too much for me that at some point I even felt like leaving my husband to go back to parents because I was not used to the kind of life I found in Mukumwa village,” Irene recalled.
Irene and her daughter draw water from the new borehole in their village.
Thanks to your generous support, World Vision drilled a borehole in Mukumwa through the Zambia WASH Program. Irene’s family and her neighbors now have access to safe water year-round. Irene operates a profitable vegetable garden, and she is now happy and proud to be a resident of Mukumwa village.
“I am now happy because I no longer have to walk a long distance to fetch water, and we no longer argue with my husband over leaving him to go back to my parents because of the problems I used to experience associated with water,” she said.
Irene has earned about $154 by selling her produce. “With this garden, I am able to buy soap, salt, and sugar, and also take my children to school. Therefore, I do not consider myself to be poor any more,” she said.
She works with her children in the garden to transfer her gardening skills to them. Her youngest daughter, Astrina, is 9 years old and in second grade. She finds it fun to water the garden when she returns from school.
Irene expressed thanks to God and World Vision for the hygiene education and the clean water that have transformed her marriage and family.
WaterAfrica Teams have traveled to Zambia and seen firsthand how truly Irene’s story represents the life-changing impact of your donations for people living in rural Zambia. World Vision is engaged in transformative development with thoughtful, sustainable strategies and methods. WaterAfrica’s fundraising supports World Vision’s Water, Sanitation & Hygiene work in Zambia and we have seen how important and life-changing this work is. Thank you for your continued support of WaterAfrica.
We look forward to strengthening our partnership with World Vision in 2015 and are excited to be sending a WaterAfrica team to Zambia in July! If you are interested in joining this travel team and seeing first hand the WASH work in the field, please contact Gary or Judi Mittelstaedt.
