©Lakshmi Prabhala

Safe water and sanitation facilities are in short supplies in India’s poorest slums. Water credit allows families to take out small loans to install water connections and toilets in their homes. Once the loans are repaid, the money is reused to help another family in need.

In the slums of India, up to 50 families share community water points. Some days, water flows a few hours, others not at all. Women gather early in the morning with their water vessels to make sure they have water for the day.

Manonmani is one of many others that live in the urban slums of Tiruchirapalli City in India. She lives with her husband and two children. Their main source of water used to come from a public standpost shared with other families. The water flow was never the same and more than often unpredictable. Manonmani and her family had access to the standpost only every four days. She could wait hours to collect water. They rarely had just enough of the resource to fulfill their needs.

Water.org is a U.S based nonprofit organization committed to providing safe drinking water and sanitation to people in developing countries. Water.org’s microloan program provides people faucet and toilet installations. The communities are starting to get educated about the crisis and are organizing sustainable solutions. The organization also has outgoing projects in Africa, South Asia, Latin America and soon in Haiti.

You can make the gift of water to someone in need for this Holiday season and help a family like Manonmani’s. Now she has clean water at home and her family’s health has improved. Their personal hygiene is better than ever. Manonmani has time to work and earn money to support the family income. Her children won’t have to miss on school to help her out to collect water. They will finally have a serious education.

There are 884 million of people still in need of clean water in the world. You can help by visiting water.org.