A heartbreaking need for clean water
Posted on by ChrisParent Map Magazine has posted an award-winning essay written by Marla Smith-Nilson, Executive Director of Water 1st International, on their website.
The work that I do is often described by statistics: More than 1 billion people worldwide do not have access to safe water. Five million people die each year because of water-related disease. But I think the problem is best described by the real people behind the numbers.
One of them is Dilium Araya. Born and raised in Echele, a village in northern Ethiopia, 30-year-old Dilium was already the mother of six children when I met her in 2004.
At 5 a.m., Dilium awakens to nurse her infant son, Medin, and make a breakfast of injera bread and chick-pea soup for her family.
Around 6 a.m. Dilium and her 11-year-old daughter, Asmaraha, strap empty 5-gallon plastic containers on their backs and begin the walk to collect water. It’s a 14-mile journey that takes them six hours to complete.
The article, which describes the Global water crisis and the work of Water 1st International, won an award from the Parenting Publications of America in the personal essay category.