Rolling with Hope

Nomusa* is a 75-year-old grandmother, living in Shiyabazali Informal Settlement, near Howick, South Africa. She is raising her two orphaned grandchildren, aged 10 and 12. The children attend a free non-profit school and the family survives on very small government grants.

Their only access to water is from a water tanker that arrives once a day during school hours. Nomusa can’t carry the heavy buckets of water herself and has to pay others to fetch it for her. This expense significantly reduces the amount of food she is able to provide for her grandchildren.

Nearby lives Mandisa*, a 67-year-old woman who is raising her eight orphaned grandchildren. She, too, faces the daily struggle of securing water. Mandisa has to make multiple trips to and from the tanker that only comes once a day. Although her grandchildren help, they often face long lines and many times return home with too little, or no water at all.

Homes in the Shiyabazali community are constructed from whatever materials people can find. It extends through what was wild bush across the top of a gorge, near a waterfall. The community lacks services of any kind, with the women here famously doing their laundry in the rock pools above the 97m high Howick Falls. Shiyabazali is home to a few thousand people and, at least, as many heart-wrenching stories.

Unity Water has included the Shiyabazali community in its Rolling with Hope project and we are currently fundraising to provide Nomusa, Mandisa, and at least 50 other homes with Hippo Rollers.

The stories of Nomusa and Mandisa are not isolated incidents but a widespread reality in informal settlements, refugee camps, and communities across the world.

Nomusa and Mandisa are among the woman and children who globally spend more than 200 million hours a day collecting water… This is the reality of Global Water Enslavement.

The Rolling with Hope campaign is delivering Hippo Rollers to ease the burden of water portage. Rolling with Hope is starting South African communities and being scaled up to include communities in other areas of the world.

When you support our campaign, you give women and children the opportunity to empower, educate, and develop themselves. You free women and children from spending many hours a day on multiple trips to fetch water.

A Hippo Roller symbolizes a return to dignity as its long term impact includes improved health and hygiene, and poverty reduction.

Help us give women and children around the world more time to thrive!

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