Janine is a hardworking woman who is determined to give her family what they need to survive. While her children were still young, Janine made the decision to move to Bahrain where she could work as a house cleaner, earning more income than she could in the Philippines. Eventually Janine moved back to the Philippines with some savings on hand. She reunited with her husband and kids. The family of four lived with Janine’s in-laws in the same way Janine had always known life in her village – without access to safe water at home.

While continuing to save for their own home, Janine and her husband contributed to the monthly water bill for their multi-family home. The bill to get water delivered was around 400 Philippine pesos. This is about $7 a month. While $7 may not seem like a lot to some, for a family living on less than $3 a day, this expense took a large portion of their income to cover. It was stressful for Janine and her family to keep the expense down as they needed water for basic life activities like cooking, cleaning, and bathing.

During this time, Janine and women in her village learned from ASA, Water.org's local partner institution, about financing options for things like homes and even water or sanitation connections. Janine used the lending system to help her family buy a small property, build a house, and most recently fund a safe water connection in their home. Janine’s water loan, made possible through Water.org’s WaterCredit initiative, was for $320. With payments made over time, Janine got immediate access to the water her family needs to survive. And, now Janine’s monthly water expenses are about $2.80 a month which is less than half of what she paid when she lived with family for temporary water access.

Janine explained she is happy with the comfort and convenience of having a long-term water solution at home. Thank you for giving to Water.org to help make stories like Janine’s possible. To learn more about how your donations create scalable impact and change lives around the world, go here.