When the rains fail in Somalia, villagers like Amina are forced to walk for 6 hours in a desperate search for water. Amina recounts, “We were going through a very difficult time. I lost my donkey while searching for water, and the burden was heavy on me, especially because my three children were still young and unable to help me.”

Her younger brother, 13-year-old Mahdi, who is responsible for fetching water for their family, should have been at school, receiving education among his peers and enjoying time with his friends. But his family’s circumstances forced him to bear this responsibility, and for him, finding water became a daily routine task throughout the day. He had to walk six hours every day to fetch water for his family.

He says, “I would leave at 7 in the morning to search for water and return after noon. I would come back very tired and couldn’t go to school.”

The organization managed to dig a new well in their village. As water approached their home, Mahdi became free to engage in activities dear to his heart, like pursuing education. He says, “I want to finish my studies and learn… I want to become a teacher.”

Amina also expressed, “I have never felt happiness like I did on that day; I couldn’t believe that I would stop walking 6 hours daily to secure water for the family.”

We fully understand the importance of water in people’s lives, and that’s why we attach great importance to it in our interventions.

By mid-2020, we have dug 65 wells in Africa alone, in addition to numerous similar interventions in other areas such as Yemen, Gaza Strip, and others.