Salima Nazarova became a widow at the age of 31 with 5 children. The life taught her a lesson, never give up. She has been working as a librarian for 25 years. She was hardly making both ends meet due to low salary. But she always tried to raise the awareness and literacy of people in Guneshli village of Shabran rayon. She was actively organising various events trying to involve all community members. Salima was trying to keep the fire alive in her family and village...
Today community needs her even more… There was no water supply in the last years for simple reasons: water lines installed in 1967 in a distance of 8 km were outdated and the number of inhabitants increased. You never know the worth of water till the well is dry. Since water sources are located far from the village, community members, mainly women and children were fetching water with handcarts walking for a distance of 2 km several times a day. It was extremely hard in winter and summer seasons. Community members had to use dirty water from water ditches intended to irrigate courtyard areas. There were cases when neighbours had to refuse thirsty children asking for a glass of water …
Salima's daughters had to walk for water as well, while their mother and brother were earning their daily bread. As the result, girls could not increase their academic performance at school and enter the university.
Umid public organisation met with the Guneshli community in April 2014 to inform about the EU funded Rural Sustainable Development Initiative ready to help with the most urgent issue.
Salima was elected with 54 votes as the head of community group consisting of 9 members.
Salima and community discussing water project with representatives of the EU Delegation to Azerbaijan.
She participated along with other members in various trainings getting ready for the forthcoming work. The group started consultations with community members knocking at every door with a list of 5 shortlisted priorities. The community chose access to safe water as the most urgent one.
The community and the municipality were ready to contribute to the implementation of the project. People were well-aware of the project benefits in their daily lives.
The work has started. Experienced community member drafted the scheme of water lines, wells were dig, tractors excavated lines for water pipes, 20 water intakes were made and installed …
Now final works are due to be completed in a month. People are happy to start New Year with access to clean water, i.e. healthy life. No more time-consuming walking for long distance in cold winter or hot summer, no more thoughts how to wash dishes, clean the house and simply wash your hands…
Salima Nazarova with community members welcomed the EU team in her village with the following statement: "Water is life-giving, you can't survive without water. Every member of our community is thankful to EU for access to clean water. Have a long life like water!"
