Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Being in one place makes all the difference

Bordele and his wife inside their vegetable garden.


Last week, we shared how Mazegbo and her family have been able to permanently settle in their community and no longer need to migrate in search of water for their cattle.

This week, we are sharing another positive outcome associated with being able to settle in one place and have clean water.

Being in one place, in one community, with a reliable source of clean water, has enabled families like Bordele’s to cultivate crops and plant a vegetable garden.

Before, when water was not close by, it was impossible to grow a crops or vegetables. There simply was not enough water for cultivation and growing during the dry season. On top of this, the family could not count on being around all the time as they would often have to migrate to care for their cattle.

Today, with a garden and some crops already planted, families in Koshale, like Bordele’s, are growing and harvesting many different vegetables and grains. This means people have a greater variety in their diet and are much healthier. It also means families do not have to buy their vegetables from the local market, which they could rarely afford. Now, Bordele and his family often have enough harvest to sell for some extra cash to pay for medical or educational expenses.

The work of planting crops and tending a vegetable garden is not always easy, but Bordele and his wife are grateful for training they have received from our local staff and the opportunity they have to cultivate a better life for themselves and their children.

We are excited about the changes in Koshale that have resulted from bringing clean water to the community. Stay tuned

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

A place to call home

Last week we brought you the story of Mazegbo, a mother who used to trek up to five hours a day to fetch her family’s drinking and cooking water from a muddy river bank.

Today, Mazegbo has safe, clean water within steps from her home and it has made a world of difference for her and her family – they are healthier, happier, and more prosperous because of this gift of clean water.

But the story doesn’t really end there.




Before HOPE International Development Agency’s support, Mazegbo and her neighbours, all of whom are cattle herders, lived a semi-nomadic life.  During the dry season they moved from place to place in search of water and nutrient-rich grasses to sustain their animals. When the little water and grasses they could find were depleted, they moved on. Unfortunately for Mazegbo and the other families, every dry season a large number of cows – their most valuable asset – died from dehydration. The death of a cow was always a heartbreaking loss to these families, both emotionally and financially.

Since the clean water began flowing from the new water system in Koshale, families are healthier and so are their livelihoods. Their cows and other animals are thriving and families have been able to settle in the village.



“No more cattle death! At any moment when the family needs money we just exchange with goats. I have no words to talk how my family and the entire community is satisfied with the support of HOPE International Development Agency’s good work,” says Mazegbo.

One water system, from a single, protected water spring, now supplies clean water to the entire village of Koshale. For the first time in their lives, Mazegbo and the other cattle herders of the area have established roots in one place. They no longer have to fear the oncoming dry season and what sorrow it will bring. Because of clean water, easily accessible in their village, their children have a home and a community to grow up in.



Clean water, especially in Koshale, Ethiopia, truly is life. Along with the gift of water flow changes that are much greater and deeper than the eye can see. It nourishes people, it sustains communities, and it revitalizes landscapes.

Stayed tuned for next week’s post as we continue to explore all the spectacular changes happening in Koshale and we see how Mazegbo and the other villagers are using clean water to transform their lives.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Changing lives in Koshale, Ethiopia, with a nearby source of clean water

Last year, we partnered with the people of Koshale, Ethiopia, to build a water system. Today, thousands of families living in this extremely rural and difficult to access location have clean water to drink.

Recently, local HOPE International Development Agency staff visited the village of Koshale to see how things are going and how families are doing.

Once again, mothers have attested to the positive changes they continue to see in their lives and their families, and we want to share these stories with you.

Mazegbo's previous source of water - a muddy river bank.
For Mazegbo, a nearby source of clean water means that she has reclaimed at least five hours per day which she can spend on activities other than walking to fetch water.

Before the water system was built, Mazegbo would carry at least 20kg of water she had collected from a shallow hole in the sand on the river bank. The walk home would take about two and a half hours as she laboured up steep, rocky trails back to her home.

"For 38 years I traveled five hours a day to fetch water for my family, but now I have water point in my neighborhood", says  Mazegbo, who is now able to use her new found time in the garden, growing vegetables for her family, as well as on other activities around her home. Mazegbo no longer worries about the water making her children sick. She knows the water is clean and safe for her family.

Mazegbo's new source of clean water - a tap (water point) right in her village.
We have written about the impact that a clean, nearby source of water has on families often, and will continue to do so in the future, because it never ceases to raise profound stories from mothers, children, and fathers that are benefiting.

In the next few weeks we are excited to explore with you a few of the myriad of ways lives are being changed. We will look into some nooks and crannies of how these women, men, and children express the changes they are making and seeing in their lives.

Thursday, August 7, 2014

The strongest people we know

The kind of strength we see among the families we work with in the world’s poorest communities is not characterized by blazing speed or the ability to lift, carry, push, pull, or throw the heaviest of objects. Nor is it glamorized or rewarded with medals, trophies, and parades. The kind of strength we see is the kind that can bring even the mentally strongest and athletically gifted here at home to tears.

The strength we see is the kind that enables a mother to walk 4-hours a day, in what would be unbearable conditions for us, to find and gather water for her thirsty children. It is the strength that drives her to work from dawn to dusk to grow the few vegetables she will feed to her children, knowing there she will most likely go hungry. It is the strength that makes it possible for her to lift, carry, push, or throw well beyond her physical stature in order to provide for her family, even though her back-breaking labor produces less than $1.50 per day. It is the strength to wake up every day and do what must be done in order to care for the ones she loves, even though she is suffering from a debilitating illness.

These are the strong people HOPE International Development Agency connects to and works with every day. We work with people who, despite being in their darkest days, are eager and motivated to do better for themselves and their families – all they need is a little help and a little hope.

For nearly four decades, we have worked with strong people who despite their impoverished circumstance, find a way. It is grandmothers who find a way to become sole providers for their grandchildren as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic having taken their grandchildren’s parents. It is rural indigenous youth who find a way to succeed academically and become leaders in their communities. It is communities that find a way to build, with your help, their own wells, clinics, schools, and cooperatives.

You will never find this kind of strength gracing the cover of a magazine, but you will find it in the hearts and minds of the families and communities we are so privileged to work with because of the support people like you provide.