Day three 18th feb -Erica

After a 5.30 start and a quick breakfast we were on the road. We stopped for a toliet break at an office of one of WaterAid's partners where we were given gifts! We then drove for miles and miles to the middle if nowhere to a small village called Nayagoan. This village has no clean water supply and no sanitation. They earn money by collecting fire wood from a forrest 3k away and live on less than £1 a day. We spent some time with a family who invited us into their home and explained their situation.The family was made up of the father; Srilal, mother; kamala and 4 children. The girls and women collect water from a spring about 1k away and have to go 5 times a day they fill up metal containers and carry 2 of them on their heads. I tried and it was so heavy, just standing there with one hurt my neck and back. They have no where to go to the toilet so they just have to go a little outside the village. The town where they sell the fire wood is 15km away they have no cattle cars so they have to carry the wood there the day after they have collected it from the forrest. they get about100 rupies for 50kg of wood.
The family were very welcoming and the main thing they thought they would gain from a safe water supply closer to the village was time. Time to work to earn more money. we asked one of Srilal's daughters what she would want for her children in the future. She said she didn't know, all she would worry about was getting enough money to feed them.
After lunch we drove to a post intervention village called Mahadev Pura. What a welcome, just like at Nayagoan the whole village was there to see us arrive. There was drums and dancing, children running about and village elders looking at us with a small smile. We were treated like royalty! This village has been self sustaining for 4 years. It was so clean and basically a model village. There is 100% sanitation and 3 hand pumps. People have been trained to build and maintain pumps and toilets and now their services are in demand in other district sanitation programmes.
The village has seen its income increase and health improve greatly, from a group of 108 villages they are the only village who has not had an outbreak of malaria since WaterAid started.
What a busy day!