Light in a Dark Place

You know that feeling when the power goes out, and you have to go to the bathroom in the dark?

Imagine if that was your life… every single day. Only, instead of a dark bathroom (which is already creepy!), you had to walk into the jungle in the dark of night to relieve yourself in private.

It would be terrifying.

Putting the finishing touches on new toilet and bathing facilities in rural India

That was the challenge we presented for World Water Day – a water need beyond clean drinking water that, if answered, would mean safety, security, and a better life for hundreds of men, women, and especially teenage girls living in tribal Odisha. Three villages had asked for safe toilet and bathing facilities, and in April, the building started. At long last, despite rain and mud and a hundred other interruptions, they’re finished!

Whether it’s daytime or whether it’s dusk, these facilities are a huge relief for these villagers!

Each bathhouse has four stalls: two for ladies and two for gentlemen. They have squat toilets, which are the easiest to keep clean, plumbed to a sanitary septic system. Each stall is also large enough to allow a person to bathe, using water from the nearby well. Maybe best of all, they include electricity so people can use them at all times of day or night!

So no one has to walk into the jungle in the dark anymore.

Training the locals on how to use and care for the new bathroom facilities

For at least two of these villages, this was the first time the local people had ever had an actual toilet to use, so our partners in north India held a training this month on how to use the toilets and keep them clean. One village celebrated the new facilities with a ribbon-cutting... and another held a parade with drums and dancing!

Cutting the ribbon - the bathroom is open!

Now, instead of walking into a dark and creepy jungle, these families have a safe, clean, well-lit place to care for themselves and their children. There’s clean water nearby, and they no longer live in fear. It's incredible to think about what a difference something as simple as a safe toilet makes!

It’s worth a celebration!