Toilet lady supports Women for Water

Especially in developing countries, water, sanitation and hygiene are the entrypoint for empowerment of women. They are the ones that again and again, fetch water for household use and for growing crops (small holders). They are the ones who tend to the children, their extended families, the community, the sick. They are the ones that cook food and clean their living spaces. So if you want to combat waterborne diseases, if you want to battle child mortality from diarea, if you want families to raise from the dirt? Right: you start with women. Because women are agents of change.

Current status

Projects to be executed in 2012.

10 local projects in developing countries, empowering women and getting them access to waters, sanitation and hygiene training, enabling them to literally raise their families from the dirt. We can't map the projects right now, so we've pinpointed WfWP's regional 'hub' in Africa for you: Tanzania.

We want to ensure that women and their families, especially in the developing world, get access to safe drinking water, trusty sanitation and better hygiene. Therefore, we need to ensure that grassroots womens' organisations around the world that form the Women for Water Partnership can keep executing their projects on the ground.

Goals

• Funding 10 local WATSAN/WASH projects (€ 15,000 each)
• Maintaining a basic secretariat for coordination purposes
• Providing resources for (inevitable) travel costs

The Women for Water Partnership's common focus is on women’s empowerment and social and economic development through fulfilling basic water and sanitation needs. WfWP bridges the gaps between the internationally agreed principles for sustainable development and the day-to-day practice in water management and water and sanitation service delivery. All local projects are developed by the local womens' organisations themselves and are based on their own choice of solutions. Every project also entails training on management and maintenance and hygiene. The result of that is local ownership and therefore sustainable development. Environmental impacts are taken into account in the choice of solution.