Bintu Kamara - Sierra Leone

I am Bintu Kamara and I am an 11 years old girl living at Lower Allentown near the Faith-in-Christ Primary School where I attend class 5.

I’m the youngest of 7 children, all living in the same house. I used to fetch water from a stream very far away and a steep slope - an every-morning chore before I go to school. Every child in the neighbourhood has to do so before and after school. We also have to fetch water for the school to provide drinking water.

The stream is also used for laundry and other purposes, a fact that leaves it unhygienic and hazardous to the health of the people living in the community. The stream is polluted by a lot of garbage. It is not surprising though that so many people in this community so often have problems with their health, especially in the days when there is a cholera outbreak.

A few weeks ago the rainwater harvesting tank at our school was completed, and so the situation changed. For laundry and bathing we still go down to the stream, but for drinking I now have pure and clean water from the tank. By that we don’t have to take the dangerous and straining way to the stream upon us so often every day. The sum of Le 100 (one hundred Leones) has to be paid to a committee, which maintains the pump, the tank and the supply of water.

I still have to go to the stream for laundry and bathing like all my neighbours. However, our health is much better now and we have more energy and time for school work.