Making Ripples: Zero to 2800 in Four Months

  Exciting news rippling out from East Africa! It has been four months since the Global Women’s Water Initiative completed Phase One of our third African Women and Water Training Program in Kampala, Uganda (Read more about the Phase 1). Fifty two women from East Africa and the United States came to Kampala to attend…

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Give a Sh*t

If you didn’t know, Nov 19 was World Toilet Day. Why, you ask, would we dedicate a day recognized around the world – to a toilet? Because one out of three people on the planet do not have access to one. The lack of safe disposal and treatment of human waste is one of the…

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Matilda is why WEA believes…

Three years ago Matilda Nabukonde had never picked up a shovel. Today, she can build rainwater harvesting systems (RWH), biosand water filters (BSF) and ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrines. She offers hygiene education workshops to hundreds of people in remote rural areas in Uganda and slums of Kampala. A grandmother and caretaker, Matilda is a…

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The Weight of Water

“I came into this world carrying water on my head, and I refuse to leave this world still carrying it.” —Mildred Mkandla from an interview with WEA Research Fellow, Beth Robertson, during the 2011 GWWI Women and Water Training in Uganda. Mildred Mkandla, known as “Mama Maji” (Mama Water in Swahili) is the “MacGyver” of…

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When I grow up, I want to be an engineer!

Photos and Text by Beth Robertson (Research Fellow)   At Katuuso Primary School in Uganda—the site where the 2011 GWWI East Africa Grassroots Training built and handed over two water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) technologies—the students, especially the girls, were shocked to see women constructing rainwater harvesting (RWH) tanks and ventilated improved pits (VIP) latrines…

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