Edina’s Story: “You Have Shown the Heart of God”
Being forced to leave one’s home, often with little notice and few belongings, is a traumatic experience that requires courage and self-sacrifice. On this World Refugee Day, Water Mission aims to honor those who have been forced to seek refuge elsewhere due to natural or humanitarian crises.
43.7 million
According to UNHCR, as of June 2024, there were an estimated 43.7 million refugees around the world.
Upon arriving at their new homes, many refugees discover that they must walk long distances to collect water that is not safe to consume. Since 2013, Water Mission has been providing safe water, sanitation, and hygiene solutions in refugee contexts. We have met the needs of refugees and displaced people around the world, including in Northern Uganda.
Northern Uganda is home to approximately 1 million refugees, some of whom live in Rhino Camp refugee settlement. Rhino Camp opened in 1980 and expanded during the South Sudanese Civil War due to an influx of South Sudanese refugees.
More than 75% of the refugees in Rhino Camp are women and children. Edina is just one of the many refugees who used to struggle to meet her family’s basic need for water.
Edina was a pastor before she fled South Sudan with her four children. When they arrived at Rhino Camp, the lack of reliable access to safe water made an already heartbreaking situation even more dire.
We walked five kilometers to collect water. But there were so many people that it could take five hours of waiting to fill only one jerrycan.
When she moved to Rhino Camp refugee settlement in Uganda, Edina found that her new home lacked reliable access to safe water, requiring her to walk and wait for her water.
After walking so far and waiting so long, Edina would rush home with her 40-pound load, knowing her children were awake and hungry.
“The children were young. They would be starving for breakfast while I was out collecting water,” she said, remembering those mornings when she had to choose between letting her children hunger all morning or thirst all day.
Life as a refugee is already difficult and traumatic. Lacking safe water access in her new home created even more challenges for Edina.
The need for reliable access to safe water access in Rhino Camp was glaring. As an engineering organization, designing, implementing, and managing water systems in the most complex contexts is one of our areas of expertise.
Soon after Water Mission got water flowing in one zone of Rhino Camp in 2018, we were asked to oversee all the water systems in the settlement. However, we found design and construction issues with many of the systems we had inherited. This resulted in water systems that were not working at full effectiveness—or not working at all.
As we continue to rehabilitate broken systems in the area, we are honored to be able to provide safe water access to many refugees like Edina and her children.
Edina says, “Because of Water Mission, we now have five tap stands [nearby]…. As a woman, I am safe at any hour—day or night—collecting water. Even girls are safe from the risk of assault while collecting water.”
We came from stress. We arrived to stress. But because of Water Mission, we were blessed. It is my prayer that Water Mission’s hands are blessed—because water is life.
Thank you for helping us serve 634,000 people in refugee camps and settlements in 2024. This World Refugee Day, you can continue to help restore comfort, peace, and dignity in the lives of refugees by giving the gift of safe water.
Edina has a special message for generous friends like you who help keep safe water flowing to refugees in Rhino Camp and beyond. She says, “You have shown the heart of God—and have given it to us.”
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