For Jackie and Olivia, documenting the impact of water access is part of their daily work. As Impact Communication Officers, they meet with students, teachers, parents, healthcare workers, and patients — listening, witnessing, and sharing their stories. Yet, even though they see these realities every day, the weight of what they encounter never lessens.

Because a lack of water isn’t just an inconvenience. It isn’t just a dry tap. It’s a boy missing school because of a painful injury. It’s a new mother worrying about washing her baby’s clothes instead of resting after childbirth. It’s students, healthcare workers, and entire communities being put at risk in ways many of us never have to think about.

Jackie and Olivia recently visited Khaunga Primary School and Khaunga Health Center, where they met Duncan and Vivian. Their stories, in Jackie and Olivia’s own words, capture both the heartbreak and the urgency of the need for clean, safe water.

It Is Painful to Lack Water

By Jacklyne Chelagat

My visit to Khaunga Primary School was a sad one. The discussion we had with the head teacher while at the school took us to the grade nine class. Upon arriving, I saw one Duncan sitting down with crutches. He could not stand and greet us like the other pupils. Duncan was in so much pain. Duncan’s pain was a result of having one of his legs injured with a major fracture.

Education is not only a basic need, but also a right that every child should have in order to be successful in life. Parents work hard to ensure their children’s school fees are paid so their young ones can be in school and learning. Teachers, on the other hand, ensure that they impart knowledge, relevant skills, and attitudes. It is the responsibility of the student to work hard and to utilize every opportunity to be a responsible person in the community. But this can only be achieved in an environment that is conducive for learning, and only if the student is healthy.

In Khaunga Primary School, Duncan, alongside other students, was sent to go and fetch water from a spring that is approximately two kilometers from school. On his way to the spring, he fell down and broke his leg. It was painful and even right now, he is still in so much pain. He was forced to use improvised wooden crutches to assist him in walking. Also, his parents were compelled to hire a motorcycle taxi so that it could bring him to school and back. It is expensive for Duncan’s family, but again, they have no choice: Duncan needs to be in school and learning. 

The thought of such a young boy whose education and future prospects are in jeopardy just because he was sent to fetch water one day is sad and devastating. Can he really concentrate in class? Will he pass his exams? Will he be able to achieve his dreams? It is sad and devastating. 

When I saw this situation, as a mother, I was heartbroken. I felt as if Duncan was my son. I wondered: where I would get the strength to go to school and pick up my son who had just broken his leg when he was going to fetch water for school use? He left in the morning running to school, and now he is supposed to be carried!

Shall we wait for another student to break his leg in search of water? 

The Sad Things That People Go Through

By Olivia Bomji

Health facilities here in Western Kenya go through challenges due to lack of water. The doctors, nurses and the patients are all affected in different ways. Health care practitioners do face a lot of challenges when delivering services to the patients. 

I remember the doctor at Khaunga Health Center telling me about his feelings of sadness and anxiety trying to care for the patients without water. This makes the healthcare workers’ jobs very stressful.

Our visit to the health center was a sad one because the facility doesn’t have water. Many patients were being attended to, and I could attest that, indeed, the doctors were so uncomfortable attending to their patients. One nurse said she always cringes when interacting with her patients, especially the babies and expectant mothers, without washing hands in between, but she knows there is nothing to be done. Her hope and prayer is that none of her patients goes home with other infections from the hospital. 

My visit to the maternity wing was very uncomfortable because of the offensive smell within the ward. We met a young girl called Vivian who is only 17 years old: a baby having a baby. Vivian had given birth to a bouncing baby boy. To Vivian and her mother, they were thankful to God for receiving a bundle of joy, but on the other hand, they were staying in a hospital that had no water. 

Vivian’s mother, Alice, had to ensure that the baby’s and Vivian’s clothes were washed because they were soiled and bloody, but the major issue was the lack of water in the facility. Alice was forced to carry the baby’s clothes back home to wash, and after the clothes were dry, she brought them back to the hospital. Alice complained of the distance from the facility to her home and the money she was spending to pay the motorbike for transport every day being so expensive. 

Alice was also so worried about leaving Vivian alone with the baby at the hospital while she went home to wash the clothes. This was a lot of work for Alice, who was supposed to take care of both Vivian and the baby. Her hope was that Vivian would be discharged from the facility soon.

As a mother, I was so sad to see Vivian in such a kind of environment. Every mother in any maternity hospital needs water, because during that period the baby’s clothes have to be washed, and the mothers have to take baths and take good care of themselves and their babies. But it was quite the opposite at Khaunga Health Center because, instead of a mother taking care of herself and the baby, they are thinking about where they will get water to wash clothes and even take baths. 

No mother should have to worry about water when she should be caring for her newborn. I left Khaunga Health Center with a prayer in my heart — that soon, this place would have the water it so desperately needs to keep its patients healthy.

Bringing Water, Changing Lives

Khaunga Primary School’s new borehole well is already under construction. Soon, students like Duncan won’t have to leave their classrooms to fetch water, risking injury along the way. But at Khaunga Health Center, patients and mothers like Vivian are still waiting.

A new borehole well at Khaunga Health Center will mean safety, dignity, and health for every mother who delivers her baby there, for every nurse trying to keep patients from getting infections, for every family walking through its doors.

Let’s bring clean water to Khaunga Health Center — because no mother, no student, no doctor should suffer through water scarcity.

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