Beletu never forget the very first time she started to toil for lack of access to clean water 20 years ago, while she was only five. She always remembers how she wasted her precious childhood time by queuing more than nine hours to fetch water for her family by waking up early morning to get in line before many people come to the water point. This is a sad reality for all villagers in washa-tekus, of Lay Gaint woreda in South Gondar. Beletu grew up dreaming to be an agriculture expert but she was forced to quit her class at the 7th grade when she lost both of her parents. Now, she is a mother herself and has two beautiful children.
In 2018, when Drop of Water visited their village for possible water project intervention, She said ‘I was really happy and excited to imagine and learn there will be an improved water point going to be constructed close to my house’. As promised, Drop of Water using the financial support of Stream of Hope has worked hard and successfully completed a new spring water construction benefiting Beletu and many of the villagers in the area. That was a joyful year for Beletu, as she received her own land from government and at the same time enjoying clean water nearby her house. That is why she named her new child ‘Desta’ meaning Happiness following the success and celebration of the new well.
The spring well is not just a source where she only gets clean water but it is also a means where she fulfilled her family’s livelihood and her childhood dream of working in agriculture, gardening, and homemade food production. Since the well discharges large amount of water and overflows abundantly, Beletu is living her dream using the blessings of the new well. She asked the water committees permission to take the overflow water to her land and practice home gardening. Now, she grows cabbage, lettuce, pumpkin, spinach, rosemary and other more vegetation in her home garden for her household consumption and also to provide for the market further increasing her income. Beltu never gets tired of talking about the blessings she gets from the water point; she continuously blesses the people who put their fingerprint for the success of the water point.
Because we spend time with Beletu we learned how the water project changed her life, we imagine a lot of people whom we didn’t get the chance to talk with. However, we believe all our beneficiaries’ lives is changed as water-changes-everything!
