This year National Storytelling Week coincided with our Safe Water & Sanitation for All appeal. We visited 8 schools and 1 nursery between Monday 28th and Thursday 31st January to raise money, raise awareness about how important safe water and sanitation is and share a story with the pupils.

We told the story of Nalucha, a 11 year old girl who lives in a rural village in Zambia. Nalucha wants the same things as every other kid, to be able to play, spend time with her friends and family and go to school.

But for Nalucha, life was quite different and often very hard. Her morning wasn’t as easy as waking up, having a wash and brushing her teeth before school. Every day, she had to wake up at 6am to go and get water for her family, with no tap at home, she had to walk to the river outside her village.

The walk was long, the water was dirty and collecting it was dangerous as crocodiles lived there. After Nalucha had carried the water back home, she could have a drink, brush her teeth, have a wash and get ready for school. That’s a lot to do in the morning.

Her family didn’t have a toilet either, so her mum, dad, 4 sisters and 3 brothers all had to go outside in the bush. Not only was this embarrassing, it meant germs and illness spread very easily. Nalucha often fell ill and had to miss school completely.

But now, thanks to our supporters, Nalucha’s story has changed. She has a safe water pump at home, her family learnt how to build their own toilet and tippy tap for hand washing, and learnt how to protect themselves from disease. She is healthier, has more free time and can go to school. She told us she dreams of being a nurse and by getting a good education this could become a reality.

We wanted to share this story with the pupils because it really shows how different others people lives are in the world, and how important having safe water and a decent toilet at home is to stay healthy.

As well as sharing Naluchas story, we ran interactive (and sometimes messy) workshops, sang songs, learnt how to build tippy-taps and learnt about the cause, spread and prevention of germs (WITH GLITTER!). In return, the schools came up with some great fundraising ideas. We especially liked Ecclestone Primary School’s ‘Throw the Sponge at the Head Teacher’ event!

In total they raised £786, which will help lots of other children like Nalucha get the opportunity to go to school and fulfil their potential, and because it was raised during our Safe Water & Sanitation for All appeal it was matched by the UK government.

A huge thanks to St Mary’s CofE, Shawbury, Overleigh St Mary’s School, Cheshire, Bishops Hooper School, Ludlow, Tilstock CofE School, Whitchurch, Nescliffe Nursery, Shrewsbury, Eccleston School, Cheshire, Belgrave School, Cheshire and Buntingsdale School, Minsterley for having us.

And we’ve got the data to prove it.

We wouldn’t be able to share Nalucha’s story without our innovative mobile-to-web data collection and monitoring system. It means we can learn, in real time, the impact our projects are having.