MADHUPUR, JHARKHAND – Meet Laali Kumari, a young lady from Madhupur, a small village in the state of Jharkhand. She lives with her mother and father and she aspires to become a teacher. She recently passed the Intermediate exams at a school in her village. Life had never been easy for her, even during her childhood. Her father is an alcoholic who doesn’t help out around the house. Her mother had to work in other households and as labour to feed the family. Managing the household with her mother’s meagre income was a challenge.
Laali’s mother tried her best to provide for her daughter. She ensure that Laali received basic education so that she could get a good job someday and make their lives better. Laali used to assist her mother with housework and along with that the task of fetching clean water was a daily chore that she could not escaped. The Gram Panchayat of their community had constructed a single hand pump, and a large number of people gather around to fetch water. Since there was no clean water source other than this in their village, she and her mother would line up and wait for their turn to fetch water. This disrupted her school routine and made her late often. It became quite challenging for her to go to school on time. Sometimes, arguments and fights would break out among the desperate crowd waiting for their turn. This took a further toll on Laali’s life and her studies.
Rising from Chaos to Success
When Operation Blessing learnt about the dire need for clean drinking water in Laali’s village, the team dug a well and constructed a handpump for the whole community. The handpump is very close to her house which makes it extremely convenient for her to fetch water. This saves up a lot of her time as Laali is now able to focus on her studies. Much to Laali’s relief, she will be enrolling in a college soon and hopes to attend classes regularly and on time. She is one step closer to achieving her dream of becoming a teacher and helping girls like herself reach for their dreams. She is thankful to Operation Blessing for bringing a bucketful of hope in the form of a handpump.
