Heart wrenching tales of Africa
28/02/2006
The plight of people in Africa has been experienced first-hand by Jenny Abel who is back from a fact-finding mission and is now determined to make a difference.
Jenny Abel, 24, was a member of an expedition to Burkina Faso in Africa for the water company’s adopted international charity, WaterAid. WaterAid is dedicated to saving lives by providing safe, clean domestic water, sanitation and hygiene education in parts of Africa and Asia. A child dies every 15 seconds in these parts of the world because of the lack of these everyday essentials.
It costs only £15.00, the price of a music cd, to provide someone with a lasting supply of clean, safe water, sanitation and hygiene education.
Jenny spent ten days in the West African country experiencing first-hand how millions of people living there survive without water and sanitation.
Her trip took her to deprived rural villages in the Koudougou region where she also had the opportunity to talk to local government officials about the current situation and how the work of WaterAid has made a huge difference.
Jenny, who has worked in the demand planning department at Essex & Suffolk Water for two years said: “It really was heart-wrenching to see how people there are living without clean and safe water, they have a very hard existence.
“On one occasion we visited a village that will receive intervention from WaterAid but where the villagers are currently collecting water from a river 500 metres from the village. The river only flows for three months of the year, the rest of the time they have to dig down into the river bed until they reach water that’s dirty.
“It was certainly eye-opening. It has made me realise how very lucky I am to have access to clean water running from the tap.”
The charity group also witnessed the tremendous difference water, sanitation and hygiene education can make to peoples’ lives when they visited villages where WaterAid’s work is in progress or has been completed.
Essex & Suffolk Water will be sending out WaterAid appeal leaflets with customers’ water bills at the beginning of March. It is hoped that customers will respond generously for this worthwhile, life-saving cause.
Jenny, who was born in Chelmsford but now lives in Braintree, will now use the knowledge she gained during her trip to educate her colleagues and will be giving presentations about her travels to employees at Essex & Suffolk Water and in schools and community groups.
She also plans to work with a fundraising committee to help raise the vital money that WaterAid needs to help more and more people gain access to clean, safe water.
For further information on WaterAid and the work the charity is doing in Burkina Faso and other parts of Africa and Asia click onto: www.wateraid.org
For further information please contact Claire Bishop on 01245 212 010.