| Can you imagine a place where women, children and families are fighting for survival due to a fierce and deadly drought? A place where the death rate continuous to rise, especially among women and children, from causes unimaginable to most of the Western World. Now imagine that you can help bring hope and empowerment to an entire village by providing them with a source of clean drinking water.
Our Village
That is a reality, for the village of Okokoma, in the Cross River State of Nigeria, West Africa. Men and women, who make up 50% of the total population of over 7,200, make a daily trip on foot to water streams as far away as three miles and carry the water back on their heads. Their trip is compromised by snake bites and mosquitoes that cause infections, malaria and elephantitis (swelling of parts of the body). They fetch water from the same rivers and seasonal streams that are used for travel, bathing, and disposing of human wastes. The contaminated water is consumed and causes water-borne diseases (such as cholera), diarrhea, sickness, and even death. It is the population of over 3,500 children, ages 0-15, who are suffering the most from these preventable ailments. The death rate for this age group has been as high as a staggering 65%.
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You must not deal only with the symptoms. You have to get to the root causes by promoting environmental rehabilitation and empowering people to do things for themselves. What is done for the people without involving them cannot be sustained.
