Can you imagine risking your life to wash your clothes?

In Digelu Kidame, an Ethiopian community, people were sometimes swept away by flash floods when they washed clothes at the river during the rainy season. "Between 2006 to June 2008 alone, about 17 people were taken by flash flood while washing their clothes in the river," said Lema, chairperson of the local water committee established by World Vision.

Today, life is safer. People have convenient access to clean water after World Vision capped natural springs to protect them from contamination, and piped the water into the village. No more lives are lost in flash floods. Girls and women no longer risk being attacked or abducted as they walk through the forest on their way to the river. And children are healthier, with clean water to drink.

"We were forgotten for years," Lema said. "Through World Vision, we are now able to get potable water. God bless World Vision. May God help the organization to continue to reach the unreached ones too."