Nivesh, an 11-year-old who lives in Simwami, southern Zambia, is afraid of getting water — a chore she undertakes at least three times a day.<\/p>\n

“I fear when I’m alone,” she says. “There are people who will kill you if they find you alone. Then they remove your parts. I’m thinking about this the whole time.”<\/p>\n

Her widowed mother, Meloda Simuzingili, 46, now raises five children on her own. She says Nivesh’s worries are well-founded. “As a woman, I fear to fetch water,” she says. “I fear to walk alone.”<\/p>\n

But in this community, there is no borehole, so mothers and children have to get dirty water from small streams — shared with pigs, goats, and cattle — to survive.<\/p>\n

Survival is all they can hope for. They can’t even collect enough water to bathe or wash clothes.<\/p>\n

It’s a huge burden for a small child. Nivesh, a slight girl in cheap sandals — her only pair of shoes — treads nimbly up and down the hills of Simwami, the water from the bucket on her head sending rivulets trickling down her cheeks like tears.<\/p>\n

But Nivesh has no choice. Across Africa, getting water is typically a girl’s job. And it’s not an easy one. “It feels like my neck is sinking into my body,” Nivesh says, referring to the weight of the bucket she must carry.<\/p>\n