Safe water appeal – you can help us turn on a tap

Getting clean water to people is not impossible – it just takes someone to do something.

It should be as easy as turning on a tap. Yet for Rosita, there’s a mountain and 10,000 deadly parasites between her and safe water for her children.

But you can do something.

With your gift of $50 you can help bring safe water to those who so desperately need it.

Rosita's story

Every day, Rosita walked three to four hours to collect water for her family. The water was not clean, but she had no alternative.

For most of Rosita's life, she walked three to four hours each day to collect water. And it's not an easy walk...

Rosita's village in the mountainous Liquica District of East Timor is located at the top of a ridge, so the walk down to the river is dangerously steep. Far worse, though, is the return trip – carrying the heavy water buckets back up the mountain. Each trip would take her more than 90 minutes, and Rosita can only carry 10 litres at once.

She would make this trip three or four times every day.

Not only was the journey long and strenuous, the water she collected for her family was not even clean. "I used to worry that animal waste was in the river and maybe because of that my children got sick."

Rosita knew the risks but she had no choice. There was no other source of water.

With your gift of $50 you can help bring safe water to those who so desperately need it.

Rosita's children

Before they had access to clean water, Rosita's children would often miss school.

Unclean water and poor sanitation lead to illnesses such as diarrhoea. And diarrhoea is serious: it is the leading cause of illness and death for young children globally.

Yet for Rosita's children, life-threatening illness wasn't what worried them most. Twelve-year-old Jessica was much more upset that she couldn't go to school. "I used to worry about always being late for school and that my teacher would hate me," she admitted to our team.

Rosita's children often missed school because they had to walk the long journey to the river to bathe. They would then return home with water before setting off again to walk another 90 minutes to school.

It's a long way to go for a bath and a drink of dirty water. And it's even longer when the cost is children's health and education. Thankfully, the solution was as easy as turning on a tap.

The solution

With your generous donation, poor communities can have access to clean, safe water.

First, we formed a community group to manage the water system. Then, with the help of our local engineers, the group dammed a spring, constructed a long pipeline and installed taps in front of each group of homes.

The water system is completely driven by gravity, which means that there is no need for expensive pumps or fuel. And the result is a safe water supply for more than 230 people.

So it really is as easy as turning on a tap!

Now, Rosita and her family can easily collect enough water to drink, bathe and wash their hands.

The benefits

The installation of taps in Rosita's village means her children are healthier and can attend school every day.

It has already made a world of difference. Since the taps were installed, Rosita's children are much healthier. Rosita tells us that her baby, Marcelia, is bigger than all her other children were at the same age. And, amazingly, Marcelia has never been sick – a real achievement in a community where most children would have battled three or more illnesses by just ten months of age.

And thanks to generous Kiwis like you, the gift of safe water will also help combat another critical issue in East Timor - malnutrition.

With the arrival of their new tap, Rosita's husband, Alfonso, has planted a vegetable garden right next to their home. They are no longer struggling to grow vegetables at the riverside, and expect to grow ten times as much as before. Their nutrient-rich veggie garden will give their children a chance of a healthy future.

Rosita is grateful for the tap. "Now I have [more time] to look after my children, [work in] my garden, look after my animals, look after my home, prepare meals for my family. I am really happy."

Please make a difference today. A gift of $50 will help bring a lifetime of safe water to one child and drastically reduce their chance of diarrhoea or other water-borne diseases.

Thank you for helping to turn on the tap.