Jennifer, 5, Zimbabwe Jennifer is constantly sick from drinking dirty water. It breaks her grandmother's heart that she is being denied the most basic of needs. Watch Jennifer's story.
Jennifer is a quiet child who rarely smiles. She carries a look of sadness that belies her tender age.
Her father has passed away and her mother tries to make ends meet as a housemaid. During the day, Jennifer is cared for by her grandmother Sitembile.
Jennifer suffers constantly from headaches and diarrhoea caused by drinking dirty water. As her family can only afford one meal a day, she doesn't have the strength to fight off illness caused by waterborne diseases.
"We have no water. We don't have rest - we are always first with disease."Sitembile, Jennifer's Grandmother
Jennifer's family are among the 780 million people living in the world's poorest communities who lack access to clean water. The results can be deadly. In Zimbabwe and other impoverished places around the world, a child dies from diarrhoeal disease every 20 seconds.
Severe drought plagues Jennifer's rural community and Sitembile walks nearly an hour each day to collect water from the nearest borehole. By the time she gets there the line is long and the water is running out.
It breaks Sitembile's heart to see Jennifer ill from lack of clean water, but she is helpless to ease her suffering.
Your donation can help families like Jennifer's to overcome poverty and injustice, giving their children the chance to grow up healthy and happy.
Despite not living far from Jennifer's family, mother of three Sakhelene can collect and harvest precious rainfall and provide her children with clean drinking water.
Thanks to donations from World Vision supporters, a rainwater tank was built near her home. Before this, a dry riverbed was the family's only water source and Sakhelene was forced to dig through the drought-hardened crust to collect the muddy water below.
Sometimes there was no water. But worse still, the children were at risk of contracting life-threatening diseases from the dirty river water.
As the new water tank fills little by little, Sakhelene looks forward to the day it is full. "I feel I could be happy," she says smiling.
The tank means Sakhelene can also grow vegetables for her family to eat and she can sell surplus produce to pay school fees.
Now that Sakhelene can provide her children with the basics they need to thrive, her hope is growing daily.
"My biggest hope for my family is that there could be change. I think it can happen." Sakhelene, Zimbabwe
We work hard to make sure that all funds donated to us are used as efficiently and effectively as possible to bring maximum impact to children and communities in need.
The figures here show how World Vision Australia's funds were spent in 2012 and refer to all funds received by World Vision Australia including gift in kind donations and government grants.
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For further details of how World Vision Australia used funds in 2012, see pg 117-137 in our 2012 Annual Report.