A borehole that changed life for Patuma
Stories of water in Chikwawa are also stories of triumph.
When mothers gather in the village watering hole, they discuss how lack of it does not only bring diseases but even claim lives. For their children, it is dropping out of high school to help fill the family’s storage from a source that sometimes take a day of walking.
Kendrix Phiri, the head teacher for Nsinja Primary School, attests to this truth. His school is where most of the children go to. In this community, often hot and dry, water is scarce.
“Our culture requires for a girl child to fetch water for use in their homes. Many girls from Malaka village skip school because no matter how early they wake up in the morning to do it, they end up waiting in a long queue that meant being late in their classes”, he said.
Phiri said that the lack of water in the villages has always been in contrast with the government’s campaign promoting girl child education. Often missing their classes, the girls end up marrying early than studying.
For Patuma, 15, who is in standard 5 at Nsinja Primary school, the dream of becoming a nurse seemed impossible. Most of the time, she only managed to attend school for three days out of five every week.
“The only water point near my village is the Njuzi borehole which is two kilometers away. This caters to people coming from more than 15 villages. The queue of people waiting to get water was very long, some would be there all day until night time”, Patuma said.
As her first lesson starts at eight every morning, she would begin fetching water as early as 5 o’clock and was always late and tired when she gets to school.
On 2012, World vision took 40 community members including Pastor Robert Kathewera from its project area in Kunyinda, Traditional Authority Ngabu and trained them in proposal writing for a water project. “I was deeply concerned with lack of a water source in our village. Our children are being denied the need they deserve,” Pastor Robert said.
“After being taught how to write a proposal, I wasted no time but to ask for a borehole”, he added. Fortunately, after writing to “Love in Action,” a charity organization based in America, a response for support came quickly. A 60-metre-deep borehole was drilled right there in Malaka Village.
Today, a huge burden for girls like Patuma have been lifted. “Many parents in this community are now aware of the importance of sending girls to school. I am happy to say that from the 24 students who got selected to go to secondary schools last year, 14 were girls”, Kendrix said.
The Covenant Life Church pastor who is also the Chairman of Pastors Fraternal in Kunyinda area emphasized that it is good for organizations to be teaching Malawians “how to fish”, rather than giving them handouts.
“If World Vision had not taught us how to request for our own needs from people who can support our own projects, this borehole will not be possible. Now it is saving the future of this community”, he added.
The community has organized a committee, who leads in collecting fees for maintenance of the borehole, keeping the area clean and safe by building a fence, planting grass and putting stones to avoid mud.
They are planning to invest in other projects such as food security and reach out to other villages so they will have their own boreholes. “After the borehole was built and water source is nearer to the people, Malaka is not the same”, said Pastor Robert, as he walked back to the church.
Patuma was laughing loud as she cleaned her bucket with her friends. Her two older sisters got pregnant and one of them got married before they even made it to standard five like her. Patuma is happy to pursue her dreams. "I will study hard", she says as she lifted her bucket and walked back home with her friend Alice.