Story time

Everybody likes a good story or poem! This is
the page for stories writen by YOU.

To send us your very own story, email splashout@wateraid.org and we'll try to
put it up on the site!

Here's a great story that 11-year-old Eleanor Thirlway from Darlington wrote about a small village in Tanzania.

Eleanor says she feels very strongly about clean water and wanted to share her story so that other people might learn how cruel and sad it is that children in other parts of the world do not have clean water in their everyday lives.

"An extraordinary day for Tasumi"

Tasumi lives in a small village in Tanzania, she is 13 years old. She lives with only her dad and Maniam (her little sister) in a mud house with a straw roof, which means she must do all the work.

Her best friend is Hena. They like to play jacks, jump rope and leap frog.

Every morning she gets up at 4am to go and fetch water from the river 26km away. Although the water is not clean it is the only water they have.

"Tasumi, Tasumi, wake up it's time to go!" it was Hena, she had two large buckets by her side.

Tasumi awoke with a start, she was having a bad dream about her mother; it was two years ago today that her mother died from drinking the dirty water, from the very river that they were going to.

On the way to the river, Tasumi told Hena all about her dream and how she didn't want her family to drink the water. But, just then, she noticed something as they got near to the river; she realized to her astonishment that all the animals that usually bathed and drank the water were dead...

"What happened here?" cried Hena.

"I think I know," said Tasumi, putting her bucket down and walking towards the first dead animal in sight. When she looked close she saw the animal had an open wound!
"It must have infected the water somehow," muttered Tasumi.

"But how?" shrugged Hena.

"Samoa," came a voice from behind it.

It was Jacqueline and Colpla, women from the village. They had already gathered 28 gallons of dirty water from the other side of the river and dropped it off at the village before collecting two more buckets to fill again.

"You're a bit late!" cried Hena "shouldn't you have been here earlier?"

"We were, we've already taken some water back to the village!" exclaimed Colpla.

"WHAT!?" shouted Tasumi, "so you took the water back without even noticing all the dead animals in the water?"

"Well, there aren't any dead animals down there," replied Jacqueline, pointing down river.

"It doesn't matter; if these animals have infections and they have been in the water, then that means ALL the water does too!" said Tasumi, gesturing to the river and looking panic-stricken.

"It's OK, all we need to do is get back to the village and stop everyone from drinking the water, simple! said Hena, trying to reassure herself and Tasumi.

On the way back to the village, Tasumi stayed front the whole time. "Are you OK?" shouted Hena.

"Mmm" mumbled Tasumi; for Tasumi wasn't OK, she was very worried.

Arriving back at the village, the girls saw that EVERYONE was up (more than usual) including Maniam, who was playing with her friends. Being only 4 years old, Maniam didn't understand why their mam had died and she didn't understand why she had died from drinking the water she drinks everyday. In fact, she hadn't really known their mother at all, which Tasumi thought was sad.

At that moment, Tasumi remembered the dream she had had the previous night.
"I'm not losing the rest of my family too!" she said determinedly. So without stopping to think, she ran into where the buckets filled with water were, in the centre of the village, and kicked them over as hard as she could, so the water splashed out of them and splattered on the ground.

"What do you think you are doing?" came a chorus of voices from the huddle.

"The water!" exclaimed Tasumi, "It's contaminated. I hope no-one has drank it?"

"Of course we have!" they replied.

"What? But..."

"There's nothing wrong with this water" they said.

"But the river, the dead animal, what??" said Tasumi, confused.

"The water is being cleaned out," said Hena's father.

"By who?" replied Hena, just as confused as Tasumi.

"By WaterAid" said Maniam, running to hug her sister.

"WaterAid" repeated Hena and Tasumi together, still very confused.

Suddenly, the huddle parted and there stood a new pump filled with clean water. The people in the huddle were wearing t-shirts saying 'WaterAid'.

So from that day forward Tasumi's life changed for the better, thanks to WaterAid!

The End

By Eleanor Thirlway

Send your stories to splashout@wateraid.org or write to Cathy Whiteman at:
   
    
   2nd Floor, 47-49 Durham Street,
   London, SE11 5JD, UK

Please note:
Pictures on this page are for illustration only and do not depict characters in the stories.