By Bryan Langdo

Summer is here, and another school year has ended. For two whole months, my wife and I will have a break from the endless stream of homework, projects, emails, parent-teacher conferences, and other school events. Our kids will be free to swim, ride their bikes, and roam the woods behind our house. I’m especially happy for my daughter, who is just coming out of kindergarten.

When I think back to my own year in kindergarten, I remember a lot of fun stuff: learning letters and listening to stories, making collages, playing with my friends. It was pretty laidback. My daughter, on the other hand, was given long lists of words to memorize, time-consuming projects, and a ton of homework—more than any five-year-old should have to deal with. So when a homework assignment was too much, or a project too big, I’d do what any responsible parent would do. I’d crumple it up and throw it in the trash. “Go outside and have fun!” I’d say.

{source: Hope Abrams}

I’m privileged that I can do such a thing, I know. The only reason I could, quite literally, throw out some of my child’s education is because she was getting way more than she needed. She had a surplus of education at her disposal. It’s the same thing with water. I can forget to turn off the faucet while scrubbing dishes (though I try not to) because I have more water than I need.

For many people around the world, and in Niger specifically, water and education are tightly linked, and neither is something to be casually thrown away. Over 60% of people in rural Niger don’t have access to clean water. Those people must deal with the daily task of making multiple trips to a stream, a shallow well, or other water source, which is often filthy and often miles away.

This grueling task falls disproportionately on women and young girls. And since fetching water can take up to 50% of the day, the majority of girls in rural Niger don’t have time to go to school. As a result, 85% of Nigerien women are illiterate. Without a proper education, these girls are unlikely to earn a decent living later in life, and the cycle of poverty continues.

That’s why the work that Wells Bring Hope does is so important. When a well is drilled in a village, the women and girls in that village have their time back. The girls can go to school and receive an education, and the women receive microfinance support and can start small businesses with their freed up time. When you donate to Wells Bring Hope, you’re helping to provide both water and education to people—people who need it desperately. People who don’t have the luxury of throwing any of it away.

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