Abasi is 10 years old and lives in a small village in West Africa. He has two younger siblings. His sister Aluna is 8, and his brother Karim is just 5 years old. Abasi’s father is a farmer. Abasi’s mother doesn’t have time to do any paying work because she spends 4 hours every day walking several miles to the river to get water.

The people in Abasi’s village don’t have running water in their houses but get their water from the river. The water is brown and doesn’t taste very good, but Abasi and his family have to drink it anyway because it’s the only kind of water they have. Sometimes the water even makes Abasi’s family sick.

When Abasi and his sister are sick they miss school. Sometimes Aluna has to miss school because their mother is sick and so Aluna has to walk to get water. The water is so heavy though that it takes Aluna most of the day to bring it back from the river. If Abasi’s father is sick, Abasi has to miss school to work in the fields. Karim was sick a lot as a baby and a young child. The bad water would give him diarrhea. Abasi’s family is really grateful that he is still alive, because a lot of children in his village die before they get to 5 years old from diarrhea.