Special Announcement: Mama Catherine, 2010 GWWI Training participant, will be at WEA’s Gala!

Mama Catherine and Alice, participants of the 2010 GWWI Training in Ghana,
parade the Biosand Water Filter they constructed with their community
through the streets of Cameroon.

What could be more exciting than having one participant of the 2010 West African Women and Water Training in Ghana join WEA to celebrate its 5th Birthday!

On May 18th, Catherine Makane Mwengella from Cameroon will join our community for the 5th Annual Gala at the Julia Morgan Ball Room in San Francisco. We cannot imagine a better way for our community to directly hear the voices of our Africa-based partners with whom we have collaborated to design and implement sustainable water projects to improve the health of communities across Africa.

Catherine Makane Mwengella, who acquired the nickname “Mama Catherine” during the 2010 training, is the President of the NGO Women for Peace in Cameroon. In Ghana, she taught us several songs which have been woven into the fabric of WEA– “We are Together” and “Progress.”

With overwhelming support from their community, Mama Catherine and her partner Alice Balemba Njanga, the Deputy Mayor of the Konye Rural Council in the Southwest region of Cameroon, came to the 2010 GWWI African Women and Water Training in Ghana on a mission to provide clean drinking water  in communities across the Southwest region. Mama Catherine and Alice’s vision of ensuring safe drinking water is imperative to their communities health and safety, since most families have little access to potable drinking water (approximately 5 gallons per day).  

While in Ghana these two dynamic women received training on the Biosan Water Filter (BSF). Alice and Catherine took this knowledge back to their communities and immediately started to inspire better health in their region. Not only have these two incredible women joined their community in constructing a Biosand Water Fiter, they have also taught over 188 people in four villages the principles of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) since March 2010.

We are thrilled to share our respect for Mama Catherine and our incredible pride in the efforts she and Alice are bringing to Southwestern Cameroon with our WEA Family on May 18th.