This dad gave his family safe water at home
Cesar and Berenice have a humble home on the coast of northeastern Brazil. The couple work hard to maintain their home and give their son and daughter a good life. Cesar is a mineral water delivery driver and Berenice works at the local library. The couple also raise dairy cattle and harvest coconut.
Access to safe water has always been a challenge for Berenice and Cesar. For more than twenty years they had no choice but to retrieve water from their relatives’ homes. Then, when it was finally possible to build a well on their land, the couple took turns using a hand pump to fill buckets of water from the well. They would carry the buckets into their home for bathing and cooking and about their property to water their livestock and trees. This system was not sustainable.
After spending his days delivering 20-liter bottles of mineral water to homes in a nearby major city, Cesar disliked that his family lacked access to safe drinking water in their home. Cesar and Berenice decided that the time had come to build a new well, with a water pump and plumbing to their house.
The couple did not, however, have the financial resources for this investment. Therefore, they sought funding through Water.org's local financial partner in Brazil, Agroamigo Bank of the Northeast. They received a loan for about $700 with annual payment installments of $350. This opportunity to finance a sustainable, lasting safe water solution changed the family's lives.
The water connection in their home not only makes it easier to cook and do laundry, the plumbing also made it possible for the couple to build an indoor shower and bathroom.
In reflecting on the years his family endured the water crisis compared to now Cesar shared, “Everything just got easier.” It is for dads like Cesar who long to give their families safe water at home and the health, hope, and “ease” that flow from it, that we do what we do. You can help.
Your monthly donations of $25 can help empower more dads like Cesar to change their families lives by giving them a lasting safe water solution at home.