In Kinienkoura, the school day doesn’t start with a lesson. For many children, it starts before sunrise, with a long walk to find water.
“Sometimes we wake the children at 4 or 5 in the morning and spend all day fetching water. They get to school late, and the teachers send them away for being late.” — A parent in Kinienkoura
The children feel it most. One student put it simply: it’s too hard to get water, and they’re punished for the time it takes.
“It's too hard to get water. We travel every time to fetch water a kilometer away. Often when we go, we're late for school, and the teachers chase us out of class because we're late.” — A student, Kinienkoura
The school itself is caught in the same crisis. The principal of Kinienkoura Elementary described what it means to run a school with no water:
“I have 430 students, 127 of them girls. The children drink so much water that the need spills over into neighboring families' supplies, and they come and shout at us. Now I tell every child to bring an old juice bottle from home, fill it, bring it to school, and take it back home to refill for the next day.” — Principal, Kinienkoura Elementary School
Six teachers work at that school. Every one of them goes home to a family facing the same water problem. When a child spends the morning carrying water instead of sitting in class, the cost isn’t just one missed lesson — it’s a future narrowed, one day at a time. And it falls hardest on girls, who carry the most water and lose the most school.
A well at or near a school gives that time back. Children get to stay children, and students. [Link: Donate]