Access to safe and adequate water remains one of the most persistent challenges in rural Ethiopia. The current infrastructure gap forces residents to rely on unprotected sources, leading to serious public health and social consequences.
Tearfund's local partner in Ethiopia, The Ethiopian Kale Heywet Church Humanitarian Aid and Development Commission (EKHC-HADC) is working with communities to increase their access to safe drinking water, decreasing illness and freeing up important time for mothers and girls.
Through WASH Committees, residents now actively protect their water sources, while many households have invested in their own private latrines following hygiene awareness campaigns run by EKHC-HADC.
Over the last 3 years, approximately 110,000 people have gained access to clean water!
For 14-year-old Trike, the rhythm of her morning has been transformed. For the last two years, she has been collecting clean, safe water from a borehole installed with a handpump right in front of her house – a borehole installed by Tearfund’s local partner, EKHC-HADC.
It wasn’t always this way. For years, the long walk for water stole time from her day and from her education.
“I really enjoy going to school because I get to learn,” shares Trike, “When I finish school I would like to be a doctor, so that I can save people’s lives.”
For girls without access to clean water, the barriers to education are numerous. Beyond the hours spent walking, the lack of adequate water and sanitation facilities creates an additional hurdle. When girls begin their menstrual cycle, many are forced to stay home, missing up to five days of school every month. That is a full month of learning lost every single year.
Now, with a tap installed in her community, Trike and other women and girls can wash properly and manage their health with dignity.
Trike reflects on the days when her entire life was rationed to a single 20-litre jerrycan. That one container had to stretch across cooking, cleaning, drinking, and bathing. Today, that scarcity is a memory.
“Now, I feel confident going to school because I have clean water,” shares Trike. “When my jerry can is finished, I just get more! It takes me just one minute to collect water, which means more time for studies and school preparation. It also means that I can get water whenever I need!”
Trike was moved to learn that people in Australia are helping to support her future. While she celebrates her own transformation, her heart remains with those still waiting. She sees her friends at school who don’t yet have a tap near their homes, and she hopes they too will one-day receive the life-changing gift of water.
Related projects have received support from the Australian Government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP).
