Meryem and Liseta are neighbors. Now they share a home. One lost her husband nine years ago, the other eight. Meryem is forty-five, Liseta sixty. Each has three children. Money was tight enough that the two families decided to combine households and raise their children together.

We gave each woman three goats. Those goats have grown into two small herds, eight animals each. Meryem sells the milk to help cover costs. Liseta cooks kologo and sells it at the market. The women take turns gathering firewood. When the rains come, they work the field side by side.

"We share the work," Liseta says. "That's how we get by."

For years, the heaviest part of that work was water. Before the well, the walk there and back took two hours, twice a day. Meryem made that walk every morning, right after sending her children off to school.

The well opened in their village two years ago. The two-hour walk is gone. Now goat's milk, kologo, and water close to home cover school fees for two families of children who lost their fathers, and carry both households toward whatever comes next.

"For our children," the mothers say. "For their future."