Water for Kids aims to improve the health and wellbeing of children and communities in low income countries, through the provision of safe water, good sanitation and other related public health measures, where current provision is absent or inadequate.
Water for Kids aims to improve the health and wellbeing of children and communities in low income countries, through the provision of safe water, good sanitation and other related public health measures, where current provision is absent or inadequate.
Water for Kids have over 22 years’ experience as a charity; providing safe water sanitation and hygiene education. They have transformed the lives of over 400,000 people in over 180communities, in nine countries.
Today, they work primarily in Uganda and Zambia where projects are managed by Ugandan and Zambian Environmental Health Officers who ensure sustainability alongside regular self-funded visits from Trustees, many of whom are also EHOs. The charity also fund projects in Tanzania, managed by the Tanzania Rural Revival and is working jointly in Kenya with a group of Chartered Institute for Environmental Health Officers.
Water for Kids work closely with their partners overseas and with the local people to ensure the projects are sustainable. Projects in Uganda and Zambia are managed on behalf of Water for Kids by local environmental health professionals. This is a working partnership between environmental health professionals in the UK and environmental health professionals in Zambia and Uganda.
Water for Kids projects include:
• Building dams to provide clean water which is easier to collect from a pipe.
• Drilling boreholes and provide hand pumps and stand-pipes.
• Harvesting rainwater for schools and clinics.
• Training local pump menders
• Training hygiene promoters (usually women from the community) to encourage families to build their own toilets and tippy-taps for hand washing.
In 2020 the Randal Charitable Foundation provided a grant to fund a solar powered water project to provide safe,clean water to 3,000 people in the Naitandu community, in Uganda. This project has been recently completed and the impacts are far reaching.
In 2021 and additional grant funding was provided for the installation of a borehole, and to ensure safe delivery of sustainable water to the Nakavumbi Community in the Iganga Region of Uganda.
Approximately10,000 litres of water are used each day and are available without queueing. The delivery of this project coincides with the onset of Covid-19. The trading centre, school and village now have access to water making hand washing easier and saving lives. The new system means that safe water is readily available without risk of breakdown. Waterborne diseases are still the largest cause of infant death in Uganda so this will save lives.
Other benefits include:
• Greater attendance of pupils at school due to not having to spend hours queueing to fetch water.
• Increase in work capacity due to villagers, particularly women, able to participate in business opportunities rather than queueing for water.
• Increase in business opportunities
• The rejuvenation of rural areas which in turn, slows down urbanisation.
• A decline in domestic abuse, due to mothers spending less time away collecting water.
• Families with disabled members finding life easier and more able to participate in village life
For more information on Water for Kids visit here
