Vaieli’s wish for Mother’s day

By Nefertiti Matatia 13 May 2018, 12:00AM

Vaieli Manuele has one wish for Mother’s Day.

She wants a water tank.

The unemployed mother of three, from the village of Falease’ela-uta, continues to struggle daily with the inconsistent water supply.

Her daily routine each day is to fetch buckets of water from different families just so she could prepare meals for her children.

Mrs. Manuele has one concern and that is the welfare of her children. She believes having a water tank will ease her worries and provide a more healthy living for her family.

“We really need a water tank because it is really tiring having to walk everywhere to different families fetching our buckets of water,” she told the Village Voice team. 

“There are times when we do not know how to cook our food because we need clean and fresh water to prepare our meals. We always need to be careful of what we are eating and everything that goes into our system.” 

“If we are careless, there is a possibility my children could get typhoid or diarrhoea. This is the reason I really need a water tank,” said the 43-year-old. 

Mrs. Manuele has many difficulties that she faces and one of them is not having a proper toilet.  

“In our village, we usually have people go to each house and do inspections and we are not allowed to have pit toilets. So we have a water sealed toilet and we are in need of a proper toilet.” 

“We cannot have a flush toilet when there is no water supply. So it is really challenging for us to try to figure everything out especially when money talks, money is what makes things start moving and progress,” she added.

No one works in their family and all her children attend school. 

“We live off the land. We grow our crops and vegetables hoping that we would harvest them soon, but everything has its season.”

“During the season of waiting, our patience is usually tested. When there are so many things coming up and we need the money and the crops aren’t ready, it is so complicated.”

Despite living in a shack, Mrs. Manuele wishes for nothing more but a water tank.

“We have been living here my whole life, but we relocated to this new place that we are now living in at the moment.”

For anyone who is willing to help Mrs. Manuele and her family, contact the number 7750036.

By Nefertiti Matatia 13 May 2018, 12:00AM

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