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By Rowena Speirs
Imagine your children waking up every morning to an empty house.
You have already set off, before the sun gets too hot, to fetch water from a stream. It’s a long walk.
The arduous task also means you can’t be there to make breakfast for your little ones and so they go to class hungry and without being able to have a wash.
This isn’t just a one-off, this is a daily scenario and it was life for Nancy, her family and many others living in the Guadalcanal province of the Solomon Islands.
 Nine communities in the Guadalcanal province of the Solomon Islands now have access to water pumps thanks to Promise Keepers participants. |
The really terrible thing was that the water Nancy used to walk miles to collect wasn’t even safe. Animals drank from the same stream and people washed their clothes and bathed in the same water. So, when her children eventually used the water to wash or drink they would contract skin infections and other water-borne diseases. “We used a stream to bathe and do washing. These cause increases in skin cross-infections,” explained Nancy. Today, however, it’s a different story and the caring mum who lives in the village of Logulava finds she now has reason to smile. Over the past two years, 172 New Zealanders, who Nancy has never met and who she will probably never meet, cared enough about her plight, and that of others also living in the Guadalcanal province, to agree to become a World Vision Pacific Partner at a Promise Keepers Event in New Zealand. Donations from these generous men have been put to good use. Funds have now helped build water pumps in nine communities. The water supply is safe and taps are strategically positioned so that villagers like Nancy have easy access to one close to their home. “Now people are so happy with the easy access to clean drinking water as it addresses many other issues such as workload,” enthuses Nancy. “We spend more time in preparing food for our children and making sure they are clean at all times. We are able to prepare food for our children to go to school.” |
Regional manager for World Vision New Zealand, Rupert Ross, said Promise Keepers participants had made a huge difference in the Solomon Islands.
“Clean water is one of the essentials of life. A water pump literally transforms a community, not just from a health point of view, but also socially, with mothers having more time to spend with their children and school attendance also improving. This is the sort of transformation we’re now seeing in the Solomon Islands.
“The best bit is that providing water is only one aspect of our work there. We have also been able to help with agriculture, for example, to ensure children and their families have enough to eat.
“This is exciting work and we are really looking forward to partnering with Promise Keepers again this year to achieve even more.”
If you wish to help people like Nancy and partner with Promise Keepers go to: worldvision.org.nz