When we met Emily, a mother of five from a rural Maasai community in Kenya, her dreams sounded like what any parent would want for their children: safety, health, time together, and a chance at a better life. But for years, those simple hopes were weighed down by the daily struggle to access clean water.
Before the water project was built, Emily walked for hours every day - sometimes up to six hours round trip - just to collect enough water for her family to cook, clean, and survive. The journey wasn’t only exhausting. It was dangerous. “In search of water, I have encountered buffalos and elephants,” she told us. “When I would see them, I would run away in fear.”
Even after the long walk, the water Emily brought home was often unsafe. Illnesses like cholera and typhoid were common in the community. For a mother already stretched thin, the fear of her children getting sick was a constant shadow. But everything changed when clean water finally arrived.
Today, because of the water piping system that brings safe water close to her home, Emily has something she once only dreamed of: time. Time to wash her children’s clothes with ease. Time to cook without stress. Time to work on her beading business and earn extra income. Time to simply be with her family.
“The water has really helped me and my family,” she said. “Now we can cook quickly and easily. There has been an improvement in health…the diseases that were so rampant before are no longer common.”
With clean water, Emily has also been able to start small-scale farming right at home. For the first time, her family can grow nutritious vegetables that once required precious money to buy at the market.
Most important to Emily are her children. All five are now in school, and she beams when she talks about their future. “My dream,” she told us, “is for my children to get a good education and to live an even better life than mine was.”
Her story is one of a mother gaining back time, dignity, safety, and the ability to dream bigger for her children.
This is Emily’s story, and she is our why. These are the reasons we do this work.
