By Norma Adhiambo, leader of Groups of Women in Agriculture (GWAKO), Kenya

There was a child by the name of Millicent Adhiambo. She was 12 years old. She attended Hongo Ongoza primary school in Kano. Millicent was a first-born and the only girl in a family of five children.

In Luo society, girls do specific duties like collecting water and fetching firewood. Being the first girl, the water responsibility was left to her.

Millicent fetched water two kilometers (1.24 miles) away from home. Millicent could only manage to bring home two buckets of water in a day. Her mother did not assist her because she had other responsibilities.

Millicent was always unhappy because getting two buckets a day was stressful. She did not have time to play with her friends, to attend school, or to clean herself. She hated teachers because they punished her when she reported late to school. This also made her hate school.

One day Millicent went to school and when she came back, there was no water in the house. It was late in the evening, and she feared being scolded by her parents because there was no water. So Millicent went to the river as it was getting dark.

When Millicent was on her way back from the river, two young men appeared from the bush. They grabbed her. She suspected that they wanted to rape her because she was alone and they were not familiar people. She managed to hit one of them with her bucket and through God’s love was rescued by an old man who was taking care of his cattle.

Traumatized, Millicent went home and told her parents. They were so sorry.

Fortunately, it was not long after that when GWAKO ministries drilled a well at Nyamkebe primary school, just 100 meters from Millicent’s home.

Free from her duty of fetching water from far away, Millicent became happy because she had time to associate with her age mates. She also escaped dangers of being raped while going to fetch water. And now she is able to maintain personal hygiene because there is enough clean water for bathing and washing clothes.

Millicent is no longer at risk of using contaminated water. The water from the new well was tested at a government laboratory and was found to be fit for consumption.

Millicent went back to school. There was no punishment because she was ever punctual. She performed well in class because she had enough time to do her homework. Millicent is always one of the top ten in her class.