Eleven year old Shobu Tara lives in Kallyanpur Pura Bastee Slum, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The area she lives in is overcrowded and used to have no basic services like water or sanitation. Recently her community has worked with WaterAid to build water and sanitation facilities here. She now visits a day care centre while her mother works to earn money for the family. At the centre children are taught about good hygiene practises which they then teach to their parents and other people. They train for three months and then graduate to spread the message to other people living in the slums.

"My name is Shobu, which means Star," she says, "and I come here to learn good hygiene. I will have fewer diseases if I learn well. I already have changed some behaviour by wearing slippers to the latrine to protect me from getting worms in my feet. I didn't even know about washing my hands before but now I do.

"I tell my family and neighbours about hand washing and keeping things clean. If I see anyone using a bad hygiene practice I tell them. Initially my parents would tell me to be quiet as I was just a child. But the group I'm with now get together and then go and tell these adults together about good hygiene. We are braver in a group and feel like we can tell adults what to more with that extra confidence."

Napoga Gurigo doesn't know her age but is probably about twelve.

She lives in Tambuoog in Ghana. She came to this muddy water hole at 5.30 in the morning to collect water for her family. So far she had been waiting for over three hours to fill her water pots. It takes her a long time as she has to wait for the water to slowly seep through the dry ground. She does not go to school and is engaged to be married. She lives with her future husband's family.

Her friend Adjoa Yinla-Ati collects water with Napoga and said that it normally takes her three or four hours a day. She said she understood the benefits of a clean water source and felt that they really needed a safe water source near their village as it would give women time to do other things or "just sit under the tree like the men!"

Thirteen year old Elmas Kassa lives in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

"I collect water four times a day in a 20 litre clay jar. Its hard work." Elmas Kassa said. "I have never been to school as I have to help my mother so we can earn enough money. Our house doesn't have a bathroom so I wash once a week and go to the toilet down by the river behind my house. I usually go with my friends as we're supposed to go after dark when people can't see us."

The lack of sanitation hits women and girls very hard. Without somewhere safe and clean to go to the toilet they are exposed to disease. In many cultures girls like Elmas have to wait until dark until they can go to the toilet. Girls are also less likely to go to school if there is no toilet available, particularly when they are menstruating.

Fourteen year old Devi Kumari lives in Satu Pasal, Nepal with her family.

The women of the village worked with WaterAid's partner NEWAH to build a water supply close to their homes while the village men were fighting with the army. Before they had their safe water supply they used to have to collect water from a dirty river at the bottom of the hill. When the men returned they were so inspired by the women's work that they decided to build a path from the village to the new water point.

Devi's grandmother Devaka Kahtri explains the difference that water has brought to her family's life.

"We used to get water from the stream, it was very dirty. The children would get sick with diarrhoea at least once a month. Now that hardly ever happens. A neighbours son died four years ago from diarrhoea and it is still happening in villages further up the hill where they don't have safe water."