British volunteers have given impoverished Indian children a chance of independence through education, a former victim of waterborne disease said.
Anitha R, 18, was brought up in a one-room house with a tin roof where the supply worked only intermittently.
Her family had to spend 20 minutes boiling pots to kill infections when they wanted a drink.
Two years ago swallowing dirty water left her feverish with potentially fatal typhoid and off school for weeks.
She said: “I had no energy, I was in hospital for one week, I could not eat anything except milk and bread.
I was 16 and I could not go to school.” Her parents cared for and about her.
“It is fantastic that our project in Bangalore is bringing together partners and our fans with young leaders to provide access to safe water and education through the power of football.” Volunteers employed hand tools and muscle to bolt together clean water towers using carbon-based filtration technology.
“We have easy access to clean water everywhere we go, we don’t have to rely on bottled water and coming out here and just seeing how people struggled to get clean access to water was really impacting and quite shocking.
“So the fact we have been able to build these water towers and give them that access I think is nothing short of phenomenal and I think the club have done wonders to arrange this with their partners.” One school where volunteers built a water tower taught a few hundred children in a village pockmarked by rubbish and full of stray dogs.
Football coaches from Manchester played basketball-like games with the children, reinforcing the importance of education and overcoming challenges.