4 February 2010
Just a year ago, Medina Seyid was walking five miles a day just to fetch water for her family.
The widow and mother of three children collected supplies from a dirty stream and, because it was the only source of water around in her particular part of Ethiopia, it attracted many others on a similar mission and she might have to queue for an hour to fill her containers.
Being forced to drink and cook with dirty water brought regular bouts of health problems for the 27-year-old and her three children, Abduselam Seyid, aged 13, Anuar Seyid, ten, and Hayat Seyid, five.
Illness meant school was often missed or livelihood and household work went unattended.
Life limiting
All in all the lack of a decent water supply was limiting the life of this Muslim family and many others neighbouring it in the community of Kabe.
But change has come and its agent has been the local church.
Tearfund partner, the Ethiopian Kale Heywet Church (EKHC), has lengthy experience of bringing material and spiritual transformation to communities through its development work.
The church brought clean water to Kabe, fed by a gravity spring in the nearby community of Adele, and Medina now only has to go 200 yards to turn on a tap and get clean water that is enhancing her quality of life.
No longer having to trek for hours, and feeling physically exhausted into the bargain, means she can now spend more time with the children and working.
Appreciated
And no longer do the family have to walk off into the fields to go to the toilet.
EKHC staff provided them with the materials to build a latrine at the side of their house and have trained them about hygiene and sanitation – washing hands after going to the toilet is now instilled into all the family.
The church’s intervention and work with the people of Kabe has been appreciated. As thanks for the water supply, the community gave EKHC a parcel of land to build a church.
• Praise God for the enhancement of lives as a result of the EKHC’s water and sanitation work.
• Pray for world leaders to put more effort and resources into providing decent water and toilet facilities for poor communities.
• Pray for more communities around the globe to be released from material and spiritual poverty by a global network of churches.