“Life Is Paralyzed” - Daily Life At Rubanga School - Part 3
Rubanga School is a secondary school in rural Matana Colline, Burundi. The 900 boarding students, plus the faculty and staff who support them, must make a two-mile round trip to fetch unclean water for daily use. The lack of clean water affects every aspect of school life, every single day.
Safety and Community Tensions
The lack of clean water leads to tensions both within the community and between the community and school. With so many people waiting for such a critical commodity, fights have been known to break out.
“There have been numerous fights over who gets the dirty water versus who gets the clean water. The villagers don’t give priority to the students who are trying to get back to class. I understand, because everyone is just trying to get water,” says Adronis, the science research student.
“It’s a very frustrating situation,” he says. “It could be solved with clean water.”
For the female students, the concern is compounded. It is often dark when students go to collect water, and the way can become unsafe. “It’s a tough situation for us,” says student Divina. “The school has mandated that at least three girls have to go together to fetch water.”
Due to the tensions from lack of water, “some people in the area have become violent and are causing fights,” says the headmaster, Alois Ndayiruykiye.
These rising community tensions are set against the backdrop of a country where civil war lives in recent, vivid memory. The war split Burundians along ethnic lines and resulted in hundreds of thousands of casualties, sparing no one from over a decade of violence.
The Power of Clean Water
Those of us with ready access to safe drinking water often underestimate the foundational nature of clean water. Without it, as the students of Rubanga school have unfortunately discovered, life grinds to a halt. Drinking, washing, cleaning, and food preparation become unreasonably difficult. Water collection efforts – not to mention illness – cut into critical time for the number one pursuit vital to breaking the cycle of poverty: education.
The Gazelle Foundation has long recognized that access to clean water is the only way to break the cycle of poverty and to bring hope to the people who need it most. When communities have access to clean water, they experience improved health, as waterborne illnesses are the leading cause of death in Burundi. Better educational opportunities, safer communities, and improved economic opportunities are all the direct results of access to clean water.
The water systems employ a low-tech, sustainable approach built to last a lifetime. All construction happens locally, with materials purchased regionally and community members employed in system creation, both for the economic investment and the investment in building long-term local skills.
Perhaps most important, the clean water from these systems is free and accessible to all, regardless of race, ethnicity, or religion. Each drop of clean water works to build a stronger, more hopeful country, one community at a time.
“Everybody deserves clean water.”
-Gilbert Tuhabonye
We were able to help this community with a new water system, completed this fall. But there are many other schools in Burundi that need our help, too. We have shovel-ready projects lined up: all we need is you.