The Answer to "Why I Run For Water"

Please Hold My Hand

“I am going to answer this Question myself. But to begin with let me invite you to think about the following question, What makes many rural girls often times fall short, get discouraged and not believe in working hard towards realizing their own brighter future­

There are many diverse answers and opinions in response to this question. I am here to share with you my own experience and my one main reason that makes many girls fail to achieve their ambitions. And that reason seems to me to resonate with my own name.

My name is Mwanzani (-mwa za ni-) it means I didn’t think so or the outcome is beyond my imagination. The reason many rural girls find it difficult to believe in their own brighter future is because there are a thousand and one obstacles one has to dodge to make steps into that dream future. Together or singly each one reason has emense power to arrest a girl from achieving that dream future. To name a few, both or even one parent can vanish from a girls life. An uncle a girl relies on can abuse the girl and after the abuse kick her away. A school can have not enough teachers or have incompetent and corrupt ones. A school can have no toilets for girls. A long distance from where a girl has to fetch water can pose a good place for a rapist. A truck driver can lure a girl and drive away with her. The list can go on and on. Often times people forget, and they need to be reminded again and again and again, that a rural girl does not accomplish her dreams alone.

Often times when one looks at a broader picture of how many obstacles are in front of a girl that stand in the way of her dreams it can be scary and disheartening. For that reason many people have been lead to have a pessimistic view with a girls dream. Yet there is a simple, though not easy way, to instill hope that makes any girl able to accomplish her dream. And this is by making those small and big everyday obstacles not go away, but matter less by having them have no direct impact on a girl.

For a girl to walk into a better future and realize her dream all it takes is to give her a support and encouragement for those small steps she needs to take to overcome those everyday challenges. A girl does not succeed the future she succeeds one day at a time by overcoming one challenge as it stands in front of her. After such success steps repeat themselves that is what brings the light of enlightenment into the person of a girl that she in deed can achieve what lies ahead. It is then that she begins to believe and continue to work harder to achieve what lies ahead. It is then that she begins to believe in the possibility of achieving the things she didn’t believe she was capable of achieving before.

A small project operating in a girls community can have just as big impact in her life as a big project can. Often times a small project has one key advantage over a bigger project because a small project can easily build human connection between those who support that project and the individuals beneficiaries of that community. That relationship in turn can have far reaching and transforming impact.

When our community was selected to receive the safe water well I was just a small girl. All I knew was that we would now have a better access to clean and safe water. But I didn’t think more about it. I never speculated the impact that such a well could have in my very own life. I was privileged to be the very child who officially was asked to pump the water for the first time to signify a new step in the life of our community having a reliable source of clean and safe water. I could never imagine I, myself, was also being placed on a new path for a better future.

My mother passed away in 2007. My father followed by passing away in 2009. At the time I was leaving with my grandmother. When the water project came to our community I was aged ten attending class four at a nearby primary/ elementary school. That was back in 2010.

Already as small as age ten I had to help my grandmother around the house. My childhood was quickly accelerated into young adult. To assist my grandmother in our home I had to be quickly transformed to make two women in the house instead of a woman and child. I had to combine study and work. At the time elementary school was still separated from secondary or high school so I had to pass an exam to cross from elementary level to secondary level. Luckily I managed to pass primary school and went to a nearby secondary high school. Secondary school was harder when my grandmother was ill or when we had no food or money in the house I would be asked to go to stay with other people. As I was growing up instead of becoming a more consolidated personality I found myself splitting myself into thinking about studies, my grandmothers situation, adapting to new homes every now and then. Focusing on my studies became even harder. I was happy just to complete four years of secondary school. But I had doubts of whether I had done well enough. When results came they confirmed my doubts. I had failed to get enough grades to have a chance for further training.

My dream was to become a nurse of a pharmacist. I didn’t know where to start to move forward. I began looking for any job. I got a job as sales girl at a small supper market, when global economy wasn’t good and the owner closed the shop and away went my job. I began to sell charcoal at home. There was a lot of noise and threats from the government that using charcoal is bad for environment. I understood, since I learned in school the impact of cutting trees to make charcoal. Yet I saw it as a problem of the future to protect the environment. At the time all I cared for was how to I to eat to survive and buy medicine for my grandmother.

There was a moment when my mind could not conceive tomorrow. All I had to worry about was today. It was as if there was an invisible monster too big walking from the front towards me and would walk over me and I would be crashed to death. Death seemed more real and closer than any hope of seeing another day. I guess under such a circumstance life is more precarious for a girl than for a boy. A girl can say yes to something she doesn’t realize its impact at the time only to come to realize she will wake up tomorrow to a bigger trouble than that of yesterday. Our area is situated by the main road were trucks go up country and to other countries of Western Tanzania like Rwanda, Burundi, Congo even to Zambia, Malawi, up to Zimbabwe and South Africa. There are several girls who were whisked away by truck drivers to find themselves getting pregnant with diseases and dumped far away from home. Waking up the next day to realize they are now in a more difficult future than they were before.

I was very lucky though I didn’t know it then at the time. The team that set up the well in our community was very friendly. Every time they came to visit, they passed by our house also to visit my grandmother. That was how I got to know them and they got to know me. They continued to give me a lot a support and encouragement. First they encouraged me to take the exam once again. I did. Unfortunately I failed again because my mind was not yet settled enough. They asked me to try again another time, but I refused. They allowed me to take my time in order to settle down my mind. After another year had gone by and due to their repeated support and encouragement I only accepted to try once more to take the exam just to please them. Slowly I began to see perhaps there was in deed some hope for me. Perhaps I could really pass and go on. I sat once again for the exams.

When the results came that I had passed I couldn’t believe it. I was very happy. I applied to take pharmacy. It is a three year program. At college I noticed I was getting more mature and was building self believe and hope for my future. In the first year of my studies I studied as hard as I could. My eyes trouble me. But I was willing to follow all the advice so that not to cause any further damage to my eyes. I passed the first year. As I am writing this story of my life I am in the last term of the second year. I hope my last year will pass well to the end and that I will get my diploma in pharmacy.

I realize it will still be difficult to find a decent job. But I am determined to find one. Even if I will not I will have to find a way and set up a small pharmacy shop. And from there the sky will be my limit. Now I realize hope is not so much about that thing which you will get in the future. Hope is what you manage to own inside you and live with day to day. Nowadays whenever I pass by any structure of a water well and see a young girl or boy drawing water from it it means much much more to me than a chemical compound called water flowing from it. There is something more to setting up a water structure in a community than just provision of a substance called water. When I hear water is life I see multiple dimensions of how water can be a vehicle transformation of life. My grandmother passed away in 2022. I am determined to be a symbol of hope and survival for others. All this has been possible because a number of someones somewhere have been willing to lend their hands of support. All I can say is asante sana, thank you very much, and May God bless your giving hand. For in giving you have been holding my hand to a brighter future!