During the mourning period, Bernadette struggled to raise money for her school fees. When she heard about the Ambassador's Girls' Scholarship, Bernadette applied -- and with help from AEI, she's finishing school. Bernadette plans to be a lawyer, so she can help other women like her mother stand up for their rights, and the rights of their families. I'm inspired by Bernadette and her fellow scholarship winners: girls who are pursuing their dreams of education, even though they are often the heads of their families, caring for younger brothers and sisters.
After the meeting with the girls, it's time to have fun out in the schoolyard. With one hard push, Jenna and I inaugurate the Regiment School's PlayPump: a great piece of playground equipment that also addresses one of the greatest health crises in Africa today -- the lack of clean water.
A Child Dies Every 15 Seconds
A child dies every 15 seconds because of water-related illnesses. Without clean water, HIV patients can't take their antiretroviral medicines, and water-borne diseases devastate their already weakened immune systems. The work of fetching water keeps children out of school, and is the central daily task for many women and girls. The Regiment School's water pump was broken, and only worked after the children pumped repeatedly. They were forced to choose between spending huge amounts of time and energy getting water from their pump, or going to a neighboring school to use its pump -- which was also unreliable. The water supply was so limited, the principal often had to ask children to carry their own water from home to meet the school's daily needs.