Investing in women is smart.
Studies show that women reinvest up to 90 percent of their incomes back into their families. Investing in women and girls creates long-term social and economic benefits for all individuals, communities, and the world.
Even one more year in school makes a difference. A girl's income will increase by up to 25% for every year she stays in school.
Seven out of ten of the world's poorest 1,000,000,000 people are women. Clean water, and education, and turning them loose to solve problems; it's just plain smart.
Now, please read Reverend Batemanyi Léonard's water story reported by another exceptional woman, Lucky Grace Isingizwe. See what you have done now, you have given hope. Thank you.
I am Reverend Batemanyi Léonard, and this is my water story.
Before the rain catchment tanks got here, we used to go to the Gikeri forest to collect water. It took us five hours to get a single jerry can of water. The trip itself was two hours, one hour to go, and one hour to return. But when you reached the marsh in the forest, you had to dig a small hole and wait for it to be filled with water. Then, you drew the water from the spot with a cup and poured it into a jerry can.
It’s almost an entire day.
If you planned to go find water, you weren’t able to do anything else that day. And this led to a severe increase in poverty because someone who went to get water couldn’t go to the fields to do farm work. And the problem was that you were only able to use the water that one day. And you had to go back the next day.
Before the rain catchment tanks, life was really unpleasant, especially for young children. We, the adults, tried, and the little water we found we used for cooking. We used the water as parents. But the kids, the kids, were helpless. They couldn’t contain themselves. They were children. So wherever they went, they poured all the dirty water they found down their throats. The water went to their stomachs, and the kids ended up with worm diseases, with swollen bellies. So poverty and conditions plagued us because of our situation.
In addition to that, we had mothers and girls who went all the way to Gikeri to look for water just to be violated. When some came back, they didn’t say anything. But when others did, somehow it got out that they had been raped, and it destroyed their marriages. Their husbands would say things like, “You have slept with some men I don’t know. Get out! I don’t want you to infect me with diseases.”
It was a hopeless kind of life to live.
But then we heard that Water is Basic had gotten funding and that they would build us tanks—a solution to our problems. We were so happy. It’s not like before. It’s a lot better. Worm diseases are reducing in children. There used to be amebic dysentery. And there used to be fevers which were common in children. It turned out it was due to uncleanliness, which came from not having enough water.
Now the unpleasantness has really gone down, the poverty, the diseases, and the rape.
If I walked around one day and met the people who gave money to get these rain catchment tanks, it would be a fantastic opportunity to express my thanks. Because they really thought about us: they listened to our suffering and our needs. Someone who listens to your needs and answers them is a very esteemed friend whom you can never forget your entire life. You tell your children about this person. We are very thankful.
We are thankful to everyone who is involved in this project. In Kibumba and Buhumba, we are very well. We haven’t been able to sigh with relief yet, because even though we have water, other people in the region are still crying. We share the water until we have no more left to give. When it’s not raining, we only use the tank for two months. When the water is finished and the sunny season isn’t, we go back to the struggle of finding water.
In this previous sunny season (2021), most of us didn’t go very far to find water. The tanks helped us, and the sun wasn’t severe. It would really help getting tanks all around Kibumba and Buhumba. On this hill, we only have 2 tanks. If we could get 5 more tanks so that 7 would be used by the 200 families who live here, that would be a huge help. Thank you.
NOTE: 5 water tanks cost $10,000 and serve more than 1,000 people for more than 50 years.
