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GWWI Report From the Field: Sophia Elected As Chair of the Water Committee

Project: Women Building a Water Movement in East Africa

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The Global Women’s Water Initiative Team has been traveling through East Africa to visit the women teams that were trained in our 2011-2012 year long training program. Meet the people whose lives they are changing.
GWWI Team – Gemma Bulos, Director; Rose Wamalwa, Kenya/Tanzania Field Coordinator; Comfort Mukasa, Uganda Field Coordinator
Sophia, grandmother of 33 is elected as the Chairperson for the Water Tank Committee
Sophia, grandmother of 33 is elected as the Chairperson for the Water Tank Committee

Sophia lives in Odesso, Nyamasaria a slum in Kisumu, Kenya, where the main source of water is a contaminated river that runs alongside her community. Everyday you’ll see people fetching water, bathing, washing clothes, dishes and motorbikes, with animals using the water alongside.

In the past year, she had been participating in a program conducted by Kisumu Medical Education Trust (KMET) who facilitated a planning process whereby her community was able to identify their most pressing needs – which they concluded was access to water. When GWWI Graduates Rosemary and Joy of KMET returned from the GWWI training in Kampala in July 2011, they went to Sophia’s community to offer a WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) seminar in her community and introduced the rainwater harvesting system (RWH) with storage tank. Sophia jumped at the chance to participate in the seminar as well as the construction to learn how to build the system. As a grandmother with 33 grandchildren, she knew that it was important to have this knowledge to ensure that they have a hopeful future.
KMETs mission emerged from the Founder’s desire to address maternal mortality in her community. It has since evolved into the provision of health and social services in 45 communities. As a result as of the GWWI training, Rosemary and Joy are determined to integrate WASH education and technologies into KMETs mission, which they believe is a cross-cutting issue that is crucial for KMET to meet all their community health goals.
A Water Tank committee was formed consisting of all women!
A Water Tank committee was formed consisting of all women!
Rosemary and Joy trained the Odessa RWH team alongside GWWI Training partner Connect Africa. They built their tank in 5 days where the women made their own bricks, laid the foundation, and built the tank. A water committee was formed to maintain and manage the system and Sophia was elected as the Chair. The committee now sells the water at a discount price to the community. Normally water is sold at 10KSH ($.12US) per 5 gallons and the Odessa Water Committee sells it for 3KSH ($.04US). The money earned is given to widows and orphans to pay their school fees and uniforms.
In the past year, Sophia has seen more houses being built around her community because they want to be closer to the water tank so they don’t have to use the river water. Sophia is so grateful because her family no longer gets sick and she has not heard of anyone getting sick who has purchased the water.
Powerful partnership between KMET, Water Tank Committee and GWWI!
Powerful partnership between KMET, Water Tank Committee and GWWI!
  Sophia proves at any age, you can be a Water Champion!
Save the DATE: Join us on Oct 25, 2012 at the David Brower Center for the Global Women’s Water Initiative Report Back! More info to follow…

GWWI Report From the Field: Women Prisoners Provide Their Own Clean Water

Project: Women Building a Water Movement in East Africa

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The Global Women’s Water Initiative Team has been traveling through East Africa to visit the women teams that were trained in our 2011-2012 year long training program. Meet the people whose lives they are changing.
GWWI Team – Gemma Bulos, Director; Rose Wamalwa, Kenya/Tanzania Field Coordinator; Comfort Mukasa, Uganda Field Coordinator
Lydia, Naivasha Women's Prison Warden
Lydia, Naivasha Women’s Prison Warden
 
Lydia, the senior warden of Naivasha Women’s Medium Security Prison in Kenya believes that prisons should be a place for rehabilitation and transformation. In her experience, she has seen that the majority of the women who have been sentenced to time spent in prison are often convicted of crimes such as prostitution and/or abandoning their children. Despite the reasons for women feeling forced to resort to prostitution to provide for their children and having to abandon them to do so, it is still a crime and women can spend up to 3 years in prison for such offenses

Lydia believes this is an opportunity for women to transform their lives and create a new beginning. She has introduced different vocational opportunities such as craft making, sewing and embroidery for the inmates to consider doing as an alternative when they are released. When she learned about the Biosand Filter from one of GWWI Graduates Susan Njeri and Catherine Wanjohi of Life Bloom International, she thought it would be a perfect technology for the inmates to learn while being able to provide clean water for the prison.
Life Bloom, prison guards and inmates and GWWI Team with the biosand filter
Life Bloom, prison guards and inmates and GWWI Team with the biosand filter


Life Bloom International uplifts the lives of abused women with an emphasis on ex-commercial sex workers and provides them with opportunities for leadership and alternative livelihoods for a brighter future.

Inmates perform poetry
Inmates perform poetry
Inmates and GWWI team dance!
Inmates and GWWI team dance!
Susan, an ex-commercial sex worker herself, went through the Life Bloom program, transformed her life and found herself alongside Director, Catherine Wanjohi as invited participants in the GWWI Women and Water Training Program. They brought the BSF back to Naivasha and were invited by Lydia to train the inmates in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) education and to construct the BSF. The inmates were able to build two filters that are now providing all the water for the female inmates, the guards and the four children living in the prison (children under four live with their inmate mothers).
Prior to having the Biosand Filter, there were very regular outbreaks of diarrhea and vomiting, with the worst of the outbreaks happening just before the training.  They have had the filter for nearly 9 months and there has not been one episode of diarrhea since then. The male prisoners are now asking that the BSF be installed in their prison.
Thanks to the incredible inspiration of Lydia and the expertise and commitment of Life Bloom, the women prisoners now have a future full of hope!

Mary Saves $1000s With Clean Water

Project: Women Building a Water Movement in East Africa

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Mary in her organic garden
Mary in her organic garden

Meet Mary, a businesswoman who sells clothes in a small shop and lives in a small house in Matejo, a slum area in Arusha, Tanzania. A few years back she had an operation on her back and was advised by her doctor to take safe water only. She was also told not to take boiled or bottled water.  Following her doctor’s unusual prescription, she sought alternative options to treat her water.  After trying a few local options and not liking them because they still made her nauseous, she found out about the Biosand water filter from Anna Anatoli of ANEPO, a GWWI graduate who was selling this new water treatment in Arusha.

Anna learned how to build the Biosand Filter at the GWWI Women and Water Training and brought it back to her community to start a small micro-enterprise.

Mary attended an ANEPO Health and Wellness Training which was a 2-day Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Training educating the community about the benefits of good hygiene, promoting the Biosand filters (BSF) as an option for clean water, and the benefits of planting organic food for healthy eating. Here she learned how important it was not only to have safe water for drinking, but for cooking, cleaning dishes, hand washing and bathing. Mary was immediately impressed by the BSF because it could remove up to 97-99% of bacteria and it could produce over 100 liters of water per day – enough for her whole family to have safe water for all their water-related activities.

Mary’s son next to the BSF with a safe storage container on top

Before buying the Biosand Filter, when someone in her family fell sick from typhoid from the contaminated tap water piped to her house from the municipality, she would end up spending much of her pay on treatment, which made it difficult for her to save money. Because she had 14 people living in her household, she could spend sometimes up to 500,000TSH (approx.: $350) per week on medicines and hospital visits – not to mention lost wages from missing work. After having the BSF for 7 months, there has not been one incidence of typhoid in her family since they installed the filter.

GWWI African Field Team with Mary and neighbors
GWWI African Field Team with Mary and neighbors

Mary is so grateful to have been relieved from the financial burdens of water related illnesses that have held herself and her family back from opportunities.  Based on ANEPOs Health and Wellness Program she also learned how to grow organic vegetables in recycled grain bags in the small spaces in front of and next to her home. Thanks to GWWI graduate Anna Anatoli and ANEPO, Mary has clean water, healthy food and is thriving!

Visit GWWI’s website for more.

GWWI Women and Water: Congrats to GWWI Grad Elected Board Chairperson for her Water District!

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The Global Women’s Water Initiative is so excited to announce that Catherine Wanjohi, GWWI 2011 Graduate has been elected as the Chairperson for the Water Company Board for Naivasha District in Kenya!

Catherine is the Director of Life Bloom, an incredible organization that uplifts ex-commercial sex-workers by offering training and support so they can generate income through dignified vocations such as craftwork, tailoring, hairdressing, beauty therapy and such. In 2011, after attending our Women and Water Training where she learned how to educate the community about clean water, sanitation and proper hygiene (WASH) practices, how to test water to see if it is contaminated and how to build the Biosand filters to provide clean water for their communities, she was able to add this powerful service to Life Bloom’s stable of vocational trainings.

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When Catherine and her partner Susan Njeri returned home from the GWWI training, and shared the technology with their team, they were able to gain a contract to install Biosand Filters in a local women’s prison to provide clean water for the prisoners and guards.
As a result of Catherine’s new and successful water program, she applied for an open position on the Water Company Board for Naivasha District.  In one of our past blogs, Catherine expressed how shocked and excited she was to have been selected as one of two women on the nine person Board. And now to have been elected as the Board Chair is a testament to her leadership, her understanding of her local water issues, and her vision for a future of water security in her region.
We are not only thrilled for Catherine as a powerful voice for women and leader for her local water issues, but also for Naivasha District for recognizing the importance of women being included in the decision-making process regarding community water actions. Although the majority of people on a district-level policy Board are men, to be led by a woman, it is clear that the local government understands that an efficient way forward is to put the leadership into the hands of those who are most affected by lack of water and sanitation – women. This is a huge step for women as changemakers in their communities, and GWWI is so proud to have been able to support Catherine to step into her leadership as a Water Champion! Brava!
 

GWWI Women and Water on Wednesdays: GWWI Fellow Brings WaSH Education to Village Health Works in Burundi

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The Global Women’s Water Initiative is proud to welcome back GWWI 2011 Fellow Epi Bodhi who just returned from Burundi where she worked with international non-profit Village Health Works (VHW) to train their team to recognize the link between water and health and to promote practices that would reduce the risk of water-related disease. VHW strives to provide quality healthcare to the people of Burundi, with a special program focusing on women, as the United Nations ranked Burundi as one of the world’s five worst places for women and children. Nearly 1 in 10 women die during pregnancy or childbirth and nearly 1 in 5 children die before their 5th birthday.

Epi conducted Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) education seminars for more than 100 accompagnateurs or Community Health Workers (CHW). CHWs are the eyes, ears and spokespeople of VHW and provide advice and health services to the community at large. The CHWs learned to test their water using the Portable Microbiology Lab and to identify strategies for improvements and/or interventions in their current water situation to prevent water related illnesses. After attending the WaSH Training, they intend to integrate comprehensive hygiene training and education into their community outreach.
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Epi has a long background in community health as the former Director of Public Health of Amherst, MA. She applied to the GWWI Fellowship program with the intention of deepening her knowledge in public health on an international level. GWWI selected her from a pool of impressive candidates from all over the US based on her experience transforming her local Department from being not just a provider of public health services but also focusing on social justice. Under her leadership, the department worked on everything from water quality to domestic violence to HIV/AIDs to health access and health equity. Through GWWIs Fellowship program, which links international and East African women to become WaSH Facilitators and trainers, Epi was able to meet and work in collaboration with her public health counterparts in East Africa to share experiences and to learn and collaborate with women addressing their communities’ most pressing needs. Epi learned WaSH Education and appropriate technology construction alongside the GWWI East African Fellows to be able support the GWWI grassroots women’s teams to plan and implement their water strategies when they returned home to their villages. Through the GWWI Fellowship program, Epi was also able to travel and provide support directly on site in their villages, as well as throughout the year as their programs progressed via email and phone.
After attending the GWWI training, Epi was invited to conduct WaSH seminars for VHW, an organization founded Deogratias (Deo) Niyizonkiza, who’s extraordinary story is told in Tracy Kidder’s Strength in What Remains, a New York Times best seller named one of the best books of the year by the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Times, and the Chicago Tribune. 
The training was such a great success that VHW has asked her to return to Burundi in December to train an additional 300 Community Health Workers! GWWI is excited to see the work ripple out and make waves of change! Brava Epi!  To read more about Epi’s experience you can follow her blog – http://myfellowshipineastafrica.tumblr.com/


Women’s Earth Alliance (WEA) invests in grassroots women’s leadership to drive solutions to our most pressing ecological concerns – water, food, land, and climate.