Clean Water Appeal
Children are dying because clean water is out of reach. Your donation can save lives.
Water should be the source of life. But for millions of families across the world, it’s also the greatest threat.
In places like the Horn of Africa, access to clean water is becoming more difficult than ever due to frequent climate shocks like drought and flooding, ongoing conflict, and displacement. Water sources can take hours to reach on foot, and even when they are reached, they are often contaminated, leaving those who drink it at risk of waterborne diseases.
The issue is even more dangerous for children - every day, over 800 children globally die from water-related illnesses.
Through Concern’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programme, supported by generous people like you, we are providing immediate access to clean water for families in life-threatening emergencies, and delivering water purification sachets and long-lasting sustainable solutions to make dirty water safe to drink.
Your donation can change the lives of people like Hafsa and her daughter in Somaliland.
Hafsa's story
Hafsa is forced to walk five gruelling hours a day simply to collect water for her children to drink. “On the way, you meet everything,” she told us. “Snakes, thorns, painful insects that bite you. All of it, in the heat.” But when she reaches the open well, where insects and soiled clothes float on the surface, what she collects is contaminated, riddled with germs that can cause diarrhoea and diseases like cholera.
When she returned home, Hafsa tried boiling and filtering the water, but her children often became sick from drinking the unclean water. Once, her youngest daughter fell critically ill with diarrhoea, and needed hospital treatment.
“It hurt me to know I was giving them dirty water,” she said. “But what choice did I have? If I didn’t give it to them, they would die of thirst.”
Water purification sachets in action
Clean water for generations to come
Thankfully, Concern was able to reach Hafsa with a simple, but life-saving solution: water purification sachets.
With just one sachet, Hafsa was able to disinfect 10 litres of contaminated water, giving her family clean water to drink and cook with. A new well and water pump were also built Hafsa's community.
With water now only a short walk away, Hafsa can keep her children safe while also building a brighter future. She told us: “I dream of opening a small restaurant because I love cooking. With clean water, I feel like I can serve my community.”
Your donation can change the lives of families like Hafsa’s, with wells and water pumps providing clean water to communities for generations to come.
