Young girl collecting water (link to photo source embedded)
Young Girl Under 15
Hello I am Effia. I am 8 years old and
go to school in the village. I was born in Ghana and have lived in the same
village all of my life with my mother and father and my older sister.
I go to school every day to try and learn things I will need
in the future for jobs and life. We start school at 10am and then we have
sleeping time for 3 hours for all of the students old enough to go collect the
water from the nearby village for their families. They are all very tired when
they come to school as the nearest water to the village is a pond about an hour’s
walk away. The other older children say they have to get up really early to
start the walk to get the water when it is still dark so they can get back with
the water before it gets too hot. They carry it on their backs in containers,
apparently they are really heavy. The other girls at school were saying ill
need to grow some muscles quickly as I’m going to have to join them in a few
weeks when my 9th birthday comes. With luck I can keep up with
everyone and I won’t be as exhausted as the girls that come to school after
they’ve been to collect it.
Im a little nervous it’s really dark when they set off I
have seen my older sister and mother going early in the morning before safety
in numbers. Hopefully I will do alright and will manage to bring back plenty of
water and not get lost on the way, I don’t know where I would end up. Theres
apparently lots of animals nearby it too drinking the water and walking in it
I’m a bit worried in case one of the animals bite thinking were stealing their
water!
The water we do get
from the pond isn’t very nice but we still have to drink it. Its muddy and
brown and there is definitely things floating in it… best not to think about
it, it has to be drunk…
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