Anja's story
A mother, a schoolteacher, and a farmer, 24-year-old Anja from rural Madagascar is a busy woman with a lot of responsibilities.
Life before clean water
Anja is from Antsakambahiny, a small village in the Manjakandriana commune in the central highlands of Madagascar, where she has lived all her life. Like Anja, most villagers are farmers, taking on extra work - usually manual labour - to help make ends meet. Typically, locals work from 6am till 4pm, and until recently, they had to walk to get water before or after a long working day. That’s a lot of time to be on your feet in a 24-hour period.
“Before we had access to clean water in our village, we had to fetch water far away. It was tiring as we had to walk up and down hilly paths to get to the water source.
Anja had to walk to the water source even when she was heavily pregnant, endangering herself and her unborn son.
“It was a very challenging activity to do while being pregnant. The path was slippery, so I had to be very careful as I was afraid to fall or something bad happened.”
Alongside the physical demands of farming, Anja also teaches at the local primary school. She feels immense pride in her job, helping her pupils to thrive and succeed.
I just love being with children, that is what I most enjoy about being a teacher. Their presence gives me courage every day, they make me smile and I just enjoy transferring knowledge to them.
The impact on children
Without clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene, children’s lives are needlessly and often tragically put at risk. Almost 400,000 children under five die every year due to diseases caused by unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene, that's more than 1,000 children a day. Many more are frequently ill, and often children are forced to spend hours out of school collecting water and compromising their education.
“Before we got running water at school, we used to send some of our older pupils to collect water. Then we had to ration what they got.”
The ripple effect of clean water
Thanks to the support of people like you, alongside donors like the Wimbledon Foundation, WaterAid worked in collaboration with the community and a local partner to provide drinking water in Anja’s village and eight other surrounding villages.
The impact has been huge – especially for children.
With clean water, Anja has high hopes for her son Dylan, and for her pupils, the future generation of her community.
“We no longer have to send kids to collect water as we have running water at school. They are now able to play and just be kids. They can focus on their studies and have more time to read books at our library.”
And now that Anja has clean water nearby, she can use the time she used to spend walking to collect water on making valuable memories with her son instead.
What matters most in life is my kid and his future. I know that Dylan would have his own dream when he is older but as a mother, I have a dream for him, I would love to see him becoming a manager of a company.
With clean water close to home, the children of Antsakambahiny have more time to study and to play, and they are in better health, giving them the chance to reach their full potential.
Donate to support our work today and you can help even more schoolchildren and communities like Anja’s to thrive.
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