A village and school in Ethiopia are thankful for clean, reliable water sources.
In southern Ethiopia, a school of over 900 students had limited access to clean water and sanitation facilities. The village’s water pipeline was broken, exposing what water they had to dirt and other contamination. Because of poor sanitation, people were exposed to diarrheal disease, typhoid, and typhus.
Each weekday if rain didn’t make the small, difficult paths impassible, some students would forgo their lessons to walk for more than an hour to transport water to the school via donkey. Yet, the water they brought back was not enough for the staff and students’ daily use.
Attendance has improved at a school in Ethiopia since the students no longer have to walk more than an hour to find water.
“We used to find difficulty in hiring teachers,” said Dagnachew Adebo, the school principal. “Most teachers don’t want to work in a school where there is no water and sanitation facilities.”
Through our Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) program in Ethiopia, Samaritan’s Purse constructed a water reservoir in a nearby village. We connected the water system with several new water points built at the school.
The water points serve more than 1,000 people, including those at the school plus the surrounding community. We’ve also provided training on hygiene and sanitation, and built school, communal, and household latrines.
A Dream Come True
Bereket, a ninth grader, used to walk 90 minutes to collect water from a spring for her household.
“Thank you, Samaritan’s Purse, for the new water points,” she said. “In the time that we used to go and collect water, we now use to prepare and eat our breakfast, and reach class early in the morning. We can now attend class starting from the first class to the last. We have been able to follow class attentively with full energy and without exhaustion.”
During a village ceremony to celebrate and give thanks for the water system, the women sang, “Our dreams came true. God heard our prayers!”
The principal said that class attendance has improved since installation of the water system, as well as students’ grades.
“I thank Samaritan’s Purse for all the work. Since we did not have water from the establishment of this school, the feeling that I now have of getting clean water after such a long period of time is an immense joy.”
“It is a great blessing to see the joy of the community.”
Our WASH team in Ethiopia joined in celebrating God’s provision. “It is a great blessing to see the joy of the community that we serve,” said Biruk, our Ethiopia WASH program manager. “As Samaritan’s Purse staff, our mission is to show the love of Christ through our work.”
Samaritan’s Purse has built 14 new water points in the area, giving 14,580 people in Bereket’s village and two nearby villages clean water access. Since 2018, Samaritan’s Purse has constructed more than 60 water points in the Gibe and Gambora districts of Ethiopia.
When Hurricane Dorian struck the Bahamas, many freshwater wells were contaminated by the massive storm surge. Families had no access to well water, and no financial means with which to buy bottled water. Samaritan’s Purse set up community filtration systems, creating access to safe drinking water and opportunities to share the Gospel. Your gift will help us bring water access to communities hard-hit by disaster, or villages where clean water is always hard to come by.
