Ethiopian-Americans Make a Dream Come True

Alemitu Ayiso lives in Gei village, a small town in the Dawro Zone of Southern Ethiopia. Gei village has been her home for more than 50 years. It is where she raised her 9 children and where 5 of her daughters still live.

Until very recently, Gei was a place where clean water was an inconceivable dream for its residents. With no source of clean, safe water available, Alemitu and the other residents of Gei lined up each day to collect water from the only source that they had: a dirty, unprotected spring. This water, which was shared by local livestock, was severely contaminated. Though they were often sick as a result of waterborne disease, the people of Gei were forced to use this unsafe water for everything from bathing to laundry and from washing dishes to cooking. Every day Alemitu and others like her trekked for miles to push their way into the line for this dirty water.

Often frustrated by the long lines of people waiting to collect water from this single, unprotected spring, the children of the village chose to find water elsewhere. According to Alemitu, rather than join the jostling and elbowing of the adults who were waiting in the spring lines to collect water, the children simply dug into the ground until they hit muddy water. Bubbling up from the ground, brown with dirt and grime, this water all too often made the children sick. However, it was not just children who were plagued with sickness; adults also succumbed to waterborne disease. Alemitu is no stranger to this.

It is common here that we have long been living with abdominal, skin and eye diseases. The people from the health post in Kechi town told us these diseases were caused by dirty water.Alemitu Ayiso

What Alemitu and her community members were told is true. The illnesses from which they frequently suffered were indeed caused by bacteria in the water.

However, the waterborne diseases with which Alemitu is all too familiar are on the way to becoming a thing of the past. In December of 2010, the people of Gei received clean water for the first time. Thanks to the generosity of all of those at Hope for Ethiopia Atlanta, a group of Ethiopian-Americans looking to give something back to their mother country, brand new water projects have been put in to place for the community. The Wudie Spring Protection Development in this community will protect the water source for years to come.

By capping the eye of the spring to protect the water from contamination, the water scheme is able to capture hundreds of gallons of clean water every day. This safe water is then distributed through a single distribution point, allowing for easy collection by the community. Now, with safe and clean water, the people of Gei can wash their clothes and dishes, can cook and bathe, and most importantly, they can drink from their water source secure in the knowledge that they are no longer risking their lives every time they fill their jerry cans. Together with A Glimmer of Hope and the Dawro Development Association, Hope for Ethiopia Atlanta has been able to make the dream of clean, safe water a reality for Alemitu and her community members.