Sidonia Keji is a mother of four children in Gondokoro, a suburb of Juba in which Trumpeter Community Health is active (pictured above in the middle is Iklas, one of the Trumpeters). In this region, water access is complicated.
The people of Gondokoro have faced punishing floods recently, the worst for decades, which adds further strain to local water access and increases opportunity for infectious diseases to spread.
Sidonia collects water from the river because she has no other option such as a local borehole or delivery of packaged water. This is unsafe, particularly during the rainy season, as she and her children are vulnerable to water-related diseases such as cholera and intestinal worms.
The Trumpeters are working with people like Sidonia in Gondokoro so they know how to use this water safely until a more permanent local water source can be provided. The long-term plan is to invest in a more appropriate solution such as a borehole. In the last few months, they have distributed thousands of water purification tablets to households all over Gondokoro, teaching families how to use them to render their water safe to drink.
‘Since Trumpeter Community Health educated us and gave us water treatment tablets, I am now using one tablet in 20 litres of water…And it has helped us a lot – in my family no one has gotten sick since I started treating the water. In normal days I used to have one or two members who suffered from diarrhoea.’
– Sidonia
Sidonia has brought about great change for her family health thanks to her decision to start using water purification tablets. And as they are locally available, the Trumpeters encouraged Sidonia and her neighbours to budget for them so they are able to continue using them after the original delivery is used up. Besides this, Sidonia is now more aware of how to keep her family safe and hygienic during the COVID-19 pandemic thanks to training she received from the Trumpeters on handwashing and correct water storage.
