The Only Thing Missing is Cement
Blog post written by: Pamela Crane, PhD - Africa Field ManagerOn Friday I had the joy of visiting a water tank in Northern Rwanda that was just finished. It is now collecting water for TEN families to use during the dry season which should fall roughly in a month. After talking with a few of the people this tank will serve, we began to walk down the path to our car (our little 4WD could not make it up the final bits of the mountain road/path). As we walked, although I could only understand what they were saying through a translator, I could definitely recognize the happiness in their voices:
"That tank over there is the grandmother tank."
"And that one is the mother tank."
In this community, the tanks have been given family trees. When the first tanks were built, many families shared one tank, carefully rationing the water and hoping to make it through a dry season. As more tanks were built, fewer families shared a tank. And the community, in which children are prized, calls this process "one tank giving birth to another". So, on Friday, I saw the grandmother, the mother, and the baby tank. Along with it, a lot of smiling women and children who no longer have to walk down a mountain to get water from a lake filled with unsafe water.
The goal for this project is to have each tank serve ten families, and the last 20 tanks are being built right now to make that possible - a process that has taken several years. Although resources are scarce, community members provide all the materials they can give - the stones and wood - and labor to make the project possible. However, they still need a lot of cement for each tank to complete them - roughly 54 bags of cement for each tank.
These tanks are very similar to the ones in Marsabit, Kenya which helped that community survive during the drought of the Horn of Africa. Adding tanks to a region like these in Rwanda prepares these communities to harvest rain water during the rainy season so that they can withstand the dry seasons.
This holiday season, we are asking that you please consider partnering with communities like these and help us raise money for cement. Match your resources with theirs to make clean water projects possible. In doing so, you can give the gift of a healthier future for thousands of lives. Learn more about the cement campaign HERE. Right now, when you buy two bags of cement a THIRD bag is donated in your honor, take advantage of this Very Merry Matching Grant before it is too late!
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