Now Tahmina and her baby can play

Tahmina and her husband are new parents. From where they live in Gazipur, they give their everything to take care of one another and their baby boy. While Tahmina cares for their child and their home, her husband works as a taxi driver in the city.

Tahmina shared some of the challenges her young family faced before getting access to improved sanitation and water at home. “Before I was unable to give my son quality time as I was always busy working or getting water from the other house.” The other house was Tahmina’s sister-in-law’s home. It sits just a few doors down from Tahmina’s house.

The chore of collecting water for cooking and bathing wasn't easy for Tahmina. "Pumping the water from the tube well can be difficult. It was hard, my hands and hips would ache."

For many years Tahmina walked to and from her in-law’s to fill vessels, cups, and buckets of water for cooking and cleaning. This was time-consuming and for Tahmina, often difficult. Not only would her husband have to wait his turn to bathe around the schedules of her sister-in-law’s family, often causing him to be late to work, but Tahmina found the chore of collecting water for cooking and bathing the baby to be quite difficult. “I had to carry large pitchers or even mugs of water for everything. Pumping the water from the tube well can be difficult. It was hard, my hands and hips would ache.”

Eventually the day came when Tahmina was no longer able to collect water from her sister-in-law’s home. To give her family the water they needed to survive, Tahmina walked to other neighbors to get water. This did not last long before Tahmina learned she could get a small loan to build a bathroom and water faucet in her home. Through Water.org’s partner, TMSS, Tahmina was approved for a loan to fund the construction of a toilet and water connection.

Tahmina's baby enjoys a sip of safe water.

With access to safe water at home, "now I can play with my son and give him quality time."

Tahmina takes a moment to let her baby boy splash in water from their new connection.

“Now I can play with my son and give him quality time. And, now that we have the facilities in our house, we can use the water and toilet on our own time and go to work.”

Tahmina never thought she would have access to a toilet or water at home. She knew such solutions could afford her time with her son and improve his health, but the up-front expense to purchase such resources seemed out of reach.