Mehret Hooblis, age 8
Mehret Hooblis is 8 years old and lives in Hiwane.
It takes her half an hour to walk to the stream to fetch water, she comes twice a day if she has school in the morning, once a day if she has school in the afternoon. There are 6 children and two parents in her family. 3 of the children are girls. The boys don’t collect water – the oldest ones go to find work.
Mehret mostly collects water form the municipal collection point in town, so doesn’t get sick, but comes to the stream when this collection point is closed. When she does use this water she says:
“If I drink a lot of water I feel ill in my stomach”
The oldest children in her family sometimes feel ill from malaria. The younger ones get stomach upsets, sometimes from the water or sometimes from food.
“Sometimes we have to go every two weeks to the clinic. I have been to the clinic here, sometimes even in Makele.” There are doctors at the clinic in Makele - which is 60 kilometres from Hiwane. The doctor in Makele examined her urine and blood and gave her tablets but going to the doctor is expensive, sometimes beyond what they can afford. “When that happens we borrow from our neighbours.”
When she is ill she can’t go to school.
“I feel sad, I didn’t feel comfort. Everytime it happens I want to be in school, because it has importance. It enables me to know how disease like HIV can spread, I want to know everything I have to know, I want to be a doctor, but I want to learn other things too. I want to be a doctor to help my family and my people.”
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