Letting Girls Lead: Making Community Awareness Videos in Rural India

During the rainy season, flooding can make reaching the forest-dwelling tribal community of the Kesharpur Village in Maharashtra, India, impossible.

Recently, community members worked together to build a pipeline through their village so each home could have its own water pump. In coordination with the local government, Water For People helped build a water tower and implement a chlorinated water filter system.

Having water pumps accessible in each home is life-changing – women and girls no longer walk miles daily to get water. It means they can go to school or take on work to help provide for their families.

It means instead of finding water, they can find their voice.

Water For People’s system-change approach involves community and governmental collaboration around the structural work for water access. It goes even further by developing change agents and advocates within the communities themselves.

A series of workshops were hosted for women and girls to learn how to write a script to convey a story or message, and use cameras, video, and editing software to create a short film. The goal: create connection and education around the social context of water in the village.

Fourteen girls participated by interviewing their neighbors and community members, collecting footage, and weaving it together into a film that helped promote the behavior change needed to incorporate healthy habits involving their new access points – conserving water, retaining water, and growing kitchen gardens – and the role water plays in sanitation and hygiene. The group hosted a screening followed by a dialogue after.

We celebrate these young women who became change agents in their communities!

Planned gifts to Water For People help ensure we can share stories like this one. To learn how you can create your legacy, contact Kristine Mazzullo at 720-488-4555 or donate@waterforpeople.org.