A Reflection on Water for Dohom

 

A personal story

 

 

I would like to share a true story of why I am super happy today. In 1997, when I was 8 years old, my mother and I visited her older sister in Dohom village. This is one of the Arri ward villages that just received water. As you may know African kids are responsible for fetching water and cutting grass for animal feed. My mother’s sister asked me to fetch water from the river. At that time many families from rural areas didn't have access to buckets for fetching water. We used our traditional tool called kibuyu in Swahili, in English, a gourd. As you can see it is very delicate.

 

At that time, Dohom had lots of bushes and forest and they were home to a lot of monkeys. We fetched the water from the river as my aunt asked, but on the way back home we encountered some monkeys. I had never seen them before.  They were  barking at me and I was afraid and began running. The path had a lot of small rocks and I fell and broke the kibuyu. When I returned home without the water and the kibuyu, I was afraid that my aunt would punish me. However, she did not. She understood that I was afraid of monkeys having seen them for the first time.

In 2013 my wife was hired by the government to work at the Dohom dispensary as the head nurse. We lived in Dohom and still fetched water from the river. The river water was very dirty.  Here you can see a picture of the river source.

 

 

When I got a motorbike, I could carry 100 liters at a time (5 containers of 20 liters each).

 

On my birthday this year, Karimu opened the taps for clean and free running water for all families in Dohom village. I turned 34 this year and it makes me reflect on how this changes peoples lives in Dohom village, including mine and my relatives. We have clean water now.

 

 

 I am proud to be part of Karimu. I hope you enjoyed my little true story about Dohom. I am super happy and very committed to helping my community . I feel like crying while writing this story. Thank you to all the Karimu donors and volunteers. Please continue supporting Karimu.

 

Shau Erro Ae Regional Director Karimu Tanzania