Imagine what you could do if you magically had five extra hours each day. The things you could accomplish. The extra rest you would get. No matter how you chose to spend that extra time, it would be a gamechanger.
It certainly was for Chaya Devi, a grandmother who lives in the uber-remote, high-in-the-sky community of Ambote, Nepal.
Chaya Devi is 78, and strong. She has to be. Until recently, she embarked on long journeys each day to collect water. Each time it took an hour, and the trail was far from flat. At this altitude, there’s no such thing as flat.
It would be one thing if Chaya Devi had to complete this task once per day, or even twice. But most days, she had to take five trips to the river. Often she had to do it alone, even when she was unwell from drinking the very water she was toiling to collect.
Occasionally, if Chaya Devi was too ill to make the journey, she would send her children in her place. “Unfortunately, they would slip and fall” on the treacherous path, she told us. “They would break the containers, and someone would need to make the journey once more.”
Back and forth, up and down, repeat repeat repeat.
Then, one joyful day in 2016, everything changed.
The gravity-fed piped water system that had been in the works for years was finally finished, and mountain spring water — clean and safe to drink! — began to flow right to Chaya Devi’s home.
Just like that, she got hours back each day. Even better? Her children and grandchildren got time back, too. Hours that can be spent on pursuing an education, building a business, or in Chaya Devi’s case, enjoying time with family. Multiply those extra hours by hundreds of people, and it’s nothing short of game-changing.
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