Margaret’s story

We had to fetch water from dirty wells, sometimes mixed with rainwater.

— Margaret George, community member

Illness caused by unsafe water

That worry became reality when her eight-year-old daughter, Anita, fell ill and had to be admitted to Chikwewo Health Centre. Margaret remembers health workers explaining Anita’s illness was caused by drinking unsafe water, the same water the family relied on every day for drinking and cooking. “As a mother, that made me very sad,” she says.

Diarrhoea is one of the most common illnesses in communities without access to safe water, and it hits children hardest. It leaves them weak and dehydrated, and recovery can take time, affecting the whole family: a parent has to stay home to care for a sick child.

For Anita, being ill also meant missing school. Today, life looks very different for the family.

It takes less than five minutes to get to the water point, I don’t have to get up as early as I used to.

— Margaret George, community member

Safe water, close to home

A water point built close to Margaret’s home has completely changed the way the family gets its water. What once meant getting up at four o’clock and walking a long way now takes just a few minutes.

For Margaret, this makes a big difference. The shorter distance gives her more time for her family, and the reassurance that a reliable source of safe drinking water is always close by.

At the water point, she meets other women from the village that come to collect water for their households. Fetching water is still part of daily life, but the long walks and hours spent searching for water are no longer necessary.

This borehole has brought us a better life, and our families are happier.

— Margaret George, community member

Healthy and Back in school

For Anita, better access to water also means growing up in a healthier environment where she can develop and learn. When she was ill with diarrhoea, she couldn’t go to school. Now the eight-year-old is back in class and doing well – she is one of the top pupils in her class. She even knows what she wants to be when she grows up: a teacher.

Her story shows how something as seemingly simple as access to water has effects that reach far beyond the household. Illnesses caused by contaminated water can keep children out of school for days at a time. On top of that, the daily search for water costs families a great deal of precious time.

Clean water for all

When we’re thirsty, all we need to do is turn open a tap. It’s such a simple act that we don’t even think about it anymore. For people like Margaret and Anita, it’s a very different story.

In Malawi, 5.8 million people still don’t have access to clean drinking water. Some of them have to walk for hours each day, to fetch polluted water. Made Blue Foundation wants to change that.