Five-year-old Nandini walks along a snake-inhabited path up to 10 times each day to collect water for her family.

KOTHA REGALLA, India –Every day Nandini walks a treacherous path to help provide for her family. It’s the same path her mom used to walk, and every step carries with it a chilly reminder that she too is putting her life at risk.

The 5-year-old’s task is to collect water from a stream that lies a half mile from her village.

Because she is so small, she cannot carry a heavy load, so she makes this trip as many as 10 times a day to bring back enough water for her family.

But it isn’t the distance she must walk or the weight of her load that makes her task dangerous. The journey is deadly because of snakes that lie unseen along the path.

While walking this same path to collect water one evening, Nandini’s mother, Anitha, was bitten by a snake and died the next morning.

Nandini and her father collect water at the new well.

Unfortunately, Nandini and others in her village have no choice but to walk that same path to collect water since it is the only source for their village. Even worse, the water she risks her life to collect is contaminated and spreads diseases and parasites to those who drink it.

It was for this reason that a team from Operation Blessing came to Nandini’s village in the Khammam District of India to drill a clean water well right inside the village.

Thanks to the support of Operation Blessing partners, today Nandini only has to take a few steps outside her door to retrieve clean drinking water for her family—a blessing that will give Nandini’s family and others safer access to clean water for many years to come.

Since January of this year, Operation Blessing has constructed more than 250 wells and cisterns, helping more than 48,000 people in need.

HOW YOU CAN HELP
Help break the cycle of suffering by giving toward Operation Blessing's water wells and cisterns program. A gift of $1,800 can drill a well for villages and supply families with clean drinking water.

 

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