Their stomachs growled but the children of Loolmotonyi were used to waiting to eat. Each day, they had to wait hours for their mothers to return from fetching water before they could prepare the morning meal.
"We have three water points in our village that we all depend on. So I start at the one nearest to my home. If there's no water in that one, I go further," said Vicky Godson. “My only worry is the kids I leave at home.”
Vicky's younger daughter, Jackline, wanted to help her mother but she refused—the distance was too far.
"I used to ask her if I can join them, but she refused every time. She would say I was too young," said Jackline.
The children's education was also impacted by the lack of water.
“We also don’t have a guaranteed source of water [at the school]. We scramble for the little that is there, and it is our students who suffer," said Deputy Headmaster Justine Wildbard. "Over the years, we have seen a drop in attendance and academic performance. Some children don’t attend school and for those who do, we have to stop mid lessons so that they can fetch water.”
Everything changed after a local church near their home began partnering with Compassion in 2016. Seeing the need, the church used Compassion's Critical Intervention funds to construct a borehole and a water point to serve the community, and piped water to the nearby school for free.
“Children who come to the center need water when they are at the church and when they are at home. We thank God an opportunity arose through the Critical Interventions Fund and we received TSHS 72 million [USD $32,223] to pay for it," said the church's social worker Wilson Kikois.
Now Jackline can walk the short distance with her mother to fetch the safe water, skipping, laughing and sharing her hopes and dreams along the way.