By Barbara Goldberg
On April 13th CBS NEWS featured this: “Woman walks Paris marathon with bucket on head.”
It featured a Gambian woman, Siabatou Sanneh, who wore a sandwich board that said, “In Africa women walk this distance each day for drinking water” as she carried a jerrycan of water on her head while walking the route of the 39th Paris Marathon in Paris, on April 12, 2015, to raise awareness for the cause of charity “Water for Africa.”
Sanneh used the 39th Paris Marathon as a platform to bring awareness to the plight of women in her homeland and on behalf of the charity Water for Africa. She and her two daughters walk eight kilometers, or five miles every day with a bucket containing 20 liters of water, weighing about 44 lbs. This is what the women who Wells Bring Hope serves in Niger do everyday day of their lives—they walk 4-6 miles carrying 40-50 lbs. of water.
On our most recent trip to Niger we learned something new and unbearably heart-breaking. On previous trips, we sought out women who had lost children due to contaminated water, wanting to talk with them to better understand the depth of this tragedy.
What we didn’t know until now is this: it is not unusual for pregnant women to miscarry because of the physically-demanding work of walking miles while carrying water. A month ago, I met women who experienced this—more to follow on their sad stories.
I also didn’t know that after a woman delivers a baby, in three days she is back out there walking to get water. Can you imagine?
