“My name is Naginah. My husband is sick, and we feel completely helpless.”
In a small village where the summer sun pushes temperatures past 45 degrees, Naginah holds her family together with almost nothing. Her story is not unusual for the communities Al Mustafa Welfare Trust serves, but for the family living it, every single day is a struggle for the most basic things in life: a meal, and a drink of clean water.
A Household Held Together by Hope Alone
Naginah shares her home with seven people who depend on her: her elderly mother, her husband, and their five children, three older daughters and two little boys. Her husband is the only breadwinner the family has, but he is seriously ill. He suffers from kidney disease, and after every visit, the doctors return the same heartbreaking answer.
“They told us there is nothing more they can do. We feel completely helpless.”
With her husband’s health failing and no steady source of income, the family has nothing coming in. To survive, they walk out to nearby farms to collect firewood, gathering what they can to cook with and, when possible, to sell. It is exhausting work that barely allows them to make ends meet.
Food is never guaranteed. On a good day, the family manages two simple meals. On many others, they eat only once. The children go to sleep hungry more often than any mother should ever have witness, and Naginah carries the weight of it all while caring for her sick children and her ageing mother.
Water That Makes Them Sick and the Danger of Fetching It
As difficult as hunger is, it is the lack of clean water that endangers the family most. In the heat of June and July, when temperatures climb to 40 and even 50 degrees, water is the difference between life and death, yet the only water available to Naginah’s family is far from safe.
