The Big Give Christmas Challenge

Give the Gift of Water this Christmas

Water is the key to life. Nothing can survive without it. Many of us won’t think twice about the water we use to drink, to wash, to water our gardens. But there are still so many lives that are without access to clean and safe water in rural Tanzania – lives that are consequently put at risk and face discrimination, simply for not having this fundamental human right.

This Christmas, we are asking for your help so we can give the gift of water to rural communities. We are aiming to raise £7,500 with our Big Give Christmas challenge that will provide ten villages with water pumps. The best part? Our campaign target is match-funded!

This water will reach 12,000 people including 3,000 schoolgirls!

Why is this desperately needed & what will the impact be?

By installing these water pumps into the communities, we will be helping to improve the help of the 12,000 people that we reach by reducing exposure to water borne diseases via the unclean and unsafe water they are currently having to use.

There are still too many people that have to drink the dirty water that they collected form the stream, knowing that it would very likely make them ill.

Can you imagine having to drink water knowing it could make you ill? …having to give dirty water to your child to drink, knowing it could make them ill, because that was the only water you can give them…

By installing these water pumps in the communities, we will be helping to empower the women and girls that live in these communities. It is most often the duty of the women and girls to collect the water, even if that is a five kilometre and four hour walk away to the nearest stream. Collecting water will reduce the hours women are able to work and earn and income for their families

This task will also take schoolgirls out of their studies. By the time the girls get home from collecting water, it is late and they are too exhausted to do their homework for school. This will often lead to the girls falling behind in their studies.

A lack of access to water greatly contributes to the gender inequalities that women and girls have to face. Installing water pumps will not only help us to empower rural communities, but also to empower women and girls.

We will be able to help improve the educational achievement of 3000 schoolgirls, such as Elidetha.

“It was difficult to get back to school for evening classes when I had to collect water from 4km. Often when I got back from school I found our water pot empty. So I went to fetch water at Kitibitibi stream, 4km away and I spent three to four hours waiting for unsafe water in a long queue. After collecting water, cooking and eating I was often very late going back to school for the evening sessions, and very tired. I was positioned at 40th out of 129 pupils in my classroom for the past three years. But now I reached 6th position in our exams.”

Elidetha Tweet

By installing these water pumps in the communities, we will be able to help raise income and nutrition of 3000 families by increasing the amount of time they can spend on agriculture and other income generating activities when they no longer have to carry water long distances.

We will also be able to reduce walking time by up to four hours. We will also make the task a lot safer by removing the long and dangerous walk for women and girls, and removing the risk of drowning in streams and ponds.

Our local representative, Benedicto Hosea (Mboni ya Vijana), has perfected a low cost yet very effective technique of hand-drilling a borehole and installing a hand-made water pump. These pumps will give clean and safe water to communities all year around…and only cost £1500 each!

Whether it’s a donation worth a coffee and mince pie or an entire water pump, every donation will be truly and greatly appreciated this Christmas, so we can empower our communities, empower our women and girls, help keep people healthy and safe, and simply provide people one of their most fundamental human rights.