Mayce, collecting water in the mountains of Honduras. Photo: Angela Rupchock-Schafer/CWS
I love hiking. I can hike day or night, easy terrain or tough. You name it, I’m game.
But hiking for me is a pleasure, something I do to help relieve stress, to work on gaining some peace and perspective. And it certainly is not something I do while struggling to carry heavy jugs of water home. But for many women, the daily hike to get water for the family is not a pleasure but an ordeal, a huge time suck that deprives them of opportunities for an education, for added income, for time with their children.
This hard reality was slammed in my face recently while visiting Church World Service programs in Central America.
I was with a group of fellow staff as we were hiking down from the hills after visiting a CWS-supported food security program in Ermitaño, Honduras. The community has banded together and is raising fresh tilapia in hand-dug ponds, learning new agricultural techniques that provide better stewardship for the health of the land, beginning a new pig-raising venture and even producing honey in thriving hives to sell at market.
It had been a great visit and my mind was elsewhere, looking forward to the next part of the adventure.
Angela Rupchock-Schafer, with a new young friend in Nicaragua. Photo: Rosaura Andiñach/CWS
But as we walked down the path, we came upon a shack. And hiking up the steep, steep incline on the side of the path on her way home was a young woman, Macye, who could’ve been my sister. Macye was matter-of-fact when she met us, carrying her jerry cans full of water, and proud to introduce us to her young daughters Rixy and Olympia. It was obvious that she’d been walking for some time and it was hard to imagine when her day began, for her to meet with us that early with her water already collected. But she had things to do and her girls to take care of, and we left each other after a few brief minutes.
Walking away, I couldn’t get the image out of my head. As a young mother, I would do anything for my boys.
Just as I’m sure Macye would do anything for her girls.
And she does, each and every single day, walking for miles to collect the water they need to survive. Her daily hike is not one for pleasure, but for necessity. Water truly is life.
And CWS works day in and day out to help ensure that more and more families have access to safe, clean water so that their daily water hike can become a thing of the past – and they can move on to a brighter future.
Angela Rupchock-Schafer is the CWS social media & information specialist.