For 18-year-old Bibata Fofana, a student at the Soubouy school in the community of Oury, Burkina Faso, clean water once seemed like a luxury.
In Burkina Faso, a West African nation where 11.5 million people — half the population — lack clean water close to home, her daily school routine used to include more than books and lessons. It also involved thirst.
“I often brought water from home in a small can,” she said. “But when it was gone, I had to wait until the end of the lessons to go to the village to get a drink. As the distance is a bit long, I can’t always leave the classroom to go and get a drink because I’d miss some lessons.”
Without a safe water source on campus, students often drank from shallow, hand-dug wells. “We were aware that the water from the well dug in the shallows that we drank before was not to be drunk, but we had no clean water source here,” she said.
The challenge affected hundreds of students and teachers in Oury every day. Without nearby water, students often missed class, faced illness from unsafe sources or went without drink altogether.
That changed in 2024, when WaterAid partnered with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to improve access to clean water in 20 schools and surrounding communities — including Fofana’s school of 264 students and teachers.
At Soubouy school, a new borehole now provides clean water directly on campus. Handwashing stations stand nearby, promoting health and helping reduce the spread of illness so students can attend class more regularly.
“The new borehole at the school has relieved us of certain tasks that we had to do before,” Fofana explained. “Now we have easy access to water on site for all our needs, instead of having to bring it from home or travel long distances to fetch it in the village. Now we have handwashing facilities next to us that we use to wash our hands. That didn’t exist before. Because we didn’t have water, we couldn’t afford the luxury of washing our hands the way we do now. All this put us in a better position to study and succeed.”
For Fofana, whose favorite subjects are history and geography, the change has opened the door to more than just comfort. She dreams of becoming a teacher so she can help others and travel to new places. When she’s not studying, she helps her parents with household chores and work in the fields and enjoys spending time with friends.
With no congregation in the country, the collaboration reflects the Church’s global humanitarian initiatives to relieve suffering, foster self-reliance and provide opportunities for children to learn and grow.
