Bright Future Is My Community: Nyiramana Daphrose

Nyiramana Daphrose is a 68-year-old widow living in Jali. Daphrose has had no formal education and raised seven children as a farmer. Her children are all now grown and love far away with children of their own. For the last 15 years, Daphrose has had to find at least Rwf 200 each day in order to buy one jerry can of water with which to cook, clean, etc.

”You can imagine how much money I had to spend on water through the years as a farmer with very limited monthly income to cover all the expenses for my own home, school fees for my children when they were growing up, medical care, etc. Now I am too old to cultivate but I still need to find money to survive.

“Now with Bright Future in my community, I pay just 20 Rwf per jerry can of water and I have turned the 170 Rwf that I save into a small business. I buy baskets from local weavers and bring them to hand craft agents where they pay me a percentage of each basket sold. You can imagine what a big difference it makes in my life! Bright Future has saved my life, otherwise, I would be an old street beggar. I have a hope now for a better future and a longer life because I have access to clean and healthy water.”

Bright Future is now providing a brighter future for all the women and their families in their community. In their first month of sales, 1,023 people purchased water at their site – and the number of water customers is growing daily. The team provides two free jerry cans of water to eight vulnerable households, four of which are headed by elderly women and/or the physically disabled, and four very poor families that cannot afford the Rwf 20 per jerry can. Bright Future also provides training on the triggers of domestic violence as well as on hygiene and sanitation. So far, 76 women, 48 men and eight school drop-outs have attended both trainings and two women have been saved from domestic violence.