Street children and contaminated water…

Friday provided the opportunity to meet and hang out with Jonathon, a former streetchild. Jonathon was selling various postcards that he had made himself. It is his only income.

Jonathon learned English through a program in Mwanza that ministers to street children, which made the entire conversation possible. Though I encounter dozens of street children each day, most only know enough English to say “give me money.” Having an extended conversation was a true blessing.

Jonathon became a street child as a teenager after his mother died; since his father died earlier, he was free to leave his home and travel to Mwanza. Others become street children when their parents succumb to alcoholism, and tell their children to provide for themselves. Perhaps as many as half are simply runaways, who enjoy the freedom of traveling around with friends, scrounging for moneys, buying cigarettes and alcohol.

Orphans and unwanted children are not a new feature of Tanzanian culture. Families, villages, and tribes always found a way to care for orphans, and they ensured that everyone lived up to his or her responsibility to the group.However, what has changed is the unraveling of traditional society caused by the introduction of western politics, materialism, and individualism. Tribe and family used to come first. Increasingly, it is self.

Anyways, Jonathon struggles to get by, no longer living on the streets, but making enough money to rent a room in a squatter house ($5/month). Friday was a good day, as I bought five postcards; there was even enough money for him to buy some coffee from a traveling vendor ($0.04 for three cups). He likes it black, strong enough to keep him up at night while he draws new postcards.

I do feel like I was able to help him in one other practical way. One reason Jonathon likes to drink coffee is that the water is boiled, and thus purified. Jonathon, like all the residents of Mwanza, has no access to inexpensive, clean drinking water. Here are his options:

1. Buy bottled water. $0.25/liter is not much for water (Dasani, even!), but when you make about a dollar a day, the cost is prohibitive.
2. Boil water. Using city water, which is probably within 50 yards of his room, and boiling for 15 minutes, Jonathon will have water free of pathogens, but firewood is not cheap, and the smoke has long-term side effects on vision.
3. Walk to the brewery for free, purified water. But it is about a ten mile walk, which is quite hard when you will be carrying gallons of water back. Many people, however, do this daily.
4. Take a chance on city water. Most people do this from time to time. This is a major source of illnesses like typhoid, belharzia, and amoebas. And, over time, these can take a toll on one’s kidneys, eventually leading to kidney failure. (see post from last week). And the medicine cost adds up, too.

I shared with Jonathon one more option: Solar distillation. By refilling a clear water bottle with city water and setting it in a location with strong sunlight for 6 hours, over 99.99% of pathogens are killed. The UV radiation, which penetrates the plastic and radiates the water, does the work for you. Check out www.sodis.ch for more details. Jonathon seemed excited to give this a try. One of many things we will discuss in the future.


(I must give credit to Harding University School of World Missions, especially Oneal Tankersley, who first exposed us to solar distillation)