Pregnant women and nursing mothers need to up their water intake. In the United States, you see glowing pregnant women carrying around their brand-name water bottle or a mother of an infant resting on the couch with a huge glass of water next to her at all times. And if you’ve ever been in either of those situations, you know that even that feels exhausting!
In other parts of the world it’s a little different.
In Uganda, pregnant women and nursing mothers still need to up their water intake. But – slight problem - they have no water. Instead of a full glass next to their couch, their closest drop is a couple of miles away.
See this photo? Let’s try to walk a mile, or two, in this woman’s shoes. Imagine you’re trudging through bushes and over hills with a baby on your back, or in your belly. Finally you reach your water source: a small, stagnant pond. Mosquitos buzz all around you – hopefully one doesn’t give you or your baby malaria. You fill up a jerry can with a couple of gallons of murky, dirty water, and hoist it on top of your head. Now it’s time to head back home, with a baby and a heavy jug to carry.
By the time you get back home with your water, you’re already desperately thirsty. But drinking this water without boiling it first would almost certainly give you a disease like dysentery, typhoid, or hepatitis.
So, what’s a mom to do?
What if this woman, who puts her and her children’s lives at risk every day, had another option? Instead of going to a far-off reservoir filled with animal waste, what if she could walk to the nearby church and fill her jerry can with fresh, clean water from their well?
This is where you come in!
Give this woman a chance to keep herself and her children safe and healthy by giving her local Kinship a well, water storage tank, or water filters. A gift of any amount will help!
Donate to clean water solutions today and protect women and children.
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