The Water Project

When safe water is close to home, kids have time for school, families have energy for what matters, and whole communities have one more reason to smile.

What makes you smile today?

A year ago, donors gave 39-year-old Rebecca and the residents of Kaghui Community in Kenya something powerful: a solar-powered water pipeline. Before, fetching water meant long, exhausting walks under the burning sun along rocky paths, and hours waiting in line at a shallow well. Today, water is clean, close, and reliable, and the community is using small fees from water sales to fund their own future development projects.

"Our community will grow stronger and more self-reliant," Rebecca declares.

Thanks to every donor who made this possible! Rebecca and her group are now expanding their vegetable farming and tree-growing, turning clean water into food security, income, and a future they're building themselves

The Water Walk Math

Imagine your daily commute. Now imagine it's measured in jerrycans.

For millions of women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa, fetching water isn't a chore. It's a full-time job that starts before the day even begins.

Let's do the math:
➡️ Average round trip in rural sub-Saharan Africa: 33 minutes, just to make one collection
➡️ Average weight of a full jerrycan: ~44 pounds, roughly the weight of a 5-year-old child
➡️ Many families make this trip 3+ times a day. Some, 6 or more
➡️ In some countries, a single round trip stretches well past an hour

Now zoom out.

According to UNICEF, women and girls around the world collectively spend 200 million hours every single day collecting water, which is the equivalent of more than 22,800 years. Every day. Of human potential, poured into a jerrycan.

That's time not spent in school. Time not spent earning income. Time not spent caring for children, growing food, resting, or dreaming.

This is why we build wells. This is why we protect springs. This is why we install rainwater catchment systems.

Not just to deliver water, but to give time, health, and futures back to the people who truly need it.

In Western Kenya's Mukaniro Community, the residents rely on the Phillip Lutiali Spring for their daily water. Unfortunately, this source is failing them. The water trickles out so slowly that collection means standing in stagnant pools while waiting in long lines. Worse, the water is contaminated, and families regularly battle stomach upsets and serious waterborne illnesses, including typhoid, leaving them to spend scarce income on medical care instead of food, school fees, or daily essentials.

For 25-year-old Doreen Jumba (who is pregnant and watching her husband recover from typhoid contracted at this very spring), the stakes couldn't be higher. The community has tried to repair the spring on their own, but without technical expertise, those efforts haven't held.

That's where we (and you!) come in. We want to build a protected spring. This is a sealed cement structure layered with clay, stone, and soil that channels clean water through a discharge pipe, paired with a chlorine dispenser, hygiene and sanitation training, and a locally-led Water User Committee to keep it working for the long haul.

With this one project, Doreen and her neighbors can stop choosing between water and health, and start building toward the futures they deserve.

Donate today!
https://buff.ly/RopUE4b

A year ago, donors gave Ms. Priscah Zaina and her students at Musosya Primary School in Kenya something life-changing: a rainwater catchment tank right on the school compound. Before, students carried heavy 5-liter jerrycans from home or fetched from distant, unsafe scoop holes that often made them sick. Today, water is steps away, clean, and dependable year-round.

Thank you to our amazing donors who made this possible!

For the first time in a long time, the tap at Pepel clinic runs clear and steady, and a nurse who once spent her mornings hauling water from a contaminated spring gets to simply wash her hands between patients. This episode follows what happens after the well is fixed: the deliveries that become safe, the maternal care that becomes possible, and the quiet healing the patient never sees but the community feels for years.

Read the conclusion of this captivating new blog series!

https://buff.ly/3Q2FeLM

In Uganda's Bikonzi Community, the path to water once climbed a steep hill. For 65-year-old Agnes, every jerrycan she carried up that slope cost her energy she didn't have to spare. She fetched anyway, day after day, because her family needed her to.

But our donors have changed that. Now, the community’s new well sits just 500 meters from her door, which means a quick, 15-minute round trip instead of an exhausting climb. These days, Agnes mops her floors with ease, serves meals on time, and is even putting aside savings for a future piggery, a dream now within reach because water is no longer a battle.

"This has brought a sense of comfort and well-being to our home,” she shares.

Give clean water in someone’s name and tell us who you donated in honor of and why you did. Then, please provide a screenshot of your donation (hiding sensitive information for your safety) for a chance to get a personalized thank you video from our team! Winners will be selected at random (only if you haven’t won in the past 12 months)!

We are LIVE on YouTube right now! Check out the borehole drilling at Luhokho Primary School in Kenya!

https://buff.ly/elNasXb