The uphill climb is over
Benigna and her husband bought their home in 2006. Sitting high in the mountains of Peru, the house featured a kitchen and living space to call their own. What it lacked would challenge Benigna for many years because what it lacked was one of life’s most essential resources—safe water.
"It was hard to get water, we suffered a lot."
Like all families, everywhere, Benigna’s family needed water every day. “It was hard to get water,” she explained, “we suffered a lot.” As often as possible, several times a day, Benigna recalls carrying jugs downhill to collect water for her family. The climb uphill transporting that water back home was difficult and seemed to never end. Because her children were young and her husband needed to work, Benigna didn’t feel she could ask her family to help.
Benigna's youngest son has special needs that require her care around the clock. Access to safe water at home improves her ability to care for his health and hygiene.
Benigna is not alone in her struggles to give her family water each day. Half of Peru’s population, roughly 17 million people, live without safe water at home, and 14 million have no safe toilet. On the hillsides above Cusco, the pipes often reach the bottom of the sloped land and stop. So for families like Benigna’s whose homes sit up higher in the mountains, there hasn’t been piped water access.
The estimated population of Cusco is 522,000 people.
Benigna greets her loan officer, Verónica from Caja Cusco, the local bank who would ultimately help Benigna affordably finance a safe water solution for her home.
After more than two decades of carrying jugs of water uphill, Benigna learned of a solution that would change her life for good. This change started with a relationship Benigna already had with Verónica, her loan officer from Water.org’s local partner, Caja Cusco. Years earlier, Benigna took out a small loan through the bank to buy two sewing machines so she could make backpacks to sell. When Veronica shared with Benigna a new opportunity to finance a safe water solution for her home, an offering made possible through Caja Cusco’s partnership with Water.org, Benigna knew this was the solution she needed to solve her family’s water crisis.
Benigna sews purses and bags featuring traditional Peruvian materials and designs. She sells the goods at a local market.
Having already paid off her sewing machine loan, Benigna stood ready to take out another loan with the bank. Following a conversation with Veronica about financing for a water connection, Benigna turned to her husband and said, “We have to take out another little loan.” This time her small loan made would make a life-changing difference. With a small loan, Benigna financed a water storage tank and piped connection to a faucet. Now she can have the tank filled with water once a week instead of hauling water in small vessels multiple times a day.
Benigna washes dishes using water that now flows into her kitchen sink from the storage tank she financed.
With access to safe water at home Benigna has the time she needs to care for her family and to earn more income.
"I am living peacefully now…I am happy."
Benigna’s story makes clear the power of financing to help improve and save lives. One loan gave her a way to earn income sewing at home, the second gave her a way to bring safe water home. With water nearby, her walks to collect it are over and her time to sew and earn income have increased, Now Benigna is able to repay her water solution loan and provide more for her family. Pleased she celebrates her life change saying, “I am living peacefully now…I am happy.”
