Mary Swai & Rebecca Budimu are joint winners of the Hygiene Champion Award 2009. Find out who they were up against and then see them accept the award.

Eisha Shaban, Head Girl from Kalembo Secondary School in Tanzania, sends her thanks to Blue Planet Run Foundation for getting clean water to her school:

“We students of Kalembo Secondary school, we send our greetings of thanks to Blue Planet Run Foundation (BPRF), all our fellow Schools from USA, and all others who in one way or another have made us accessing Clean and safe water in our school. The bore hole you have build for us has reduced several problems we have been facing for more than 6 years now. Among the problems we have been facing include:

* Loosing several periods due to long distance moving to collect some water
* Drinking unsafe water for our health as we were fetching from local dug wells
* School building construction was also tough as we traveled the same distance in order to get water for the work
* The same wells we used to collect some water we were sharing with animals like pigs and dogs

Your assistance has made us free from above problems. We are now ensured with good health and improving our academic performance as most of our time will be used in academic issues.
Thank you very much for considering our need.”

Four year old Amina carries five litres of water back to her home in Kibaya Town in Tanzania. The container is very heavy and she has to keep putting it down on the floor as she finds it hard to carry. Fortunately she doesn’t have far to walk.

Carrying water was described as Amina’s education as she was learning to be a woman. In Tanzania, as in many developing countries, women and children are responsible for collecting their family’s water and children often start this job at a very early age.

There are three schools in her town but education is not free and many poor families like Amina’s can’t afford to send their children to school.

This story is from the WaterAid website. Visit them to find out more and to donate.