WATER, SANITATION, AND HYGIENE IN RWANDA
Through initiatives aimed at improving access to clean water and sanitation and
raising knowledge of proper hygiene, Strong Women, Strong World is working to
decrease the prevalence of waterborne diseases as well as provide women and girls
with greater opportunities by reducing the time they spend traveling to collect water.
© 2013 World Vision
The Need in Rwanda
When women do not have to
spend large amounts of time
gathering water, they have more
energy and time to devote to
raising children, and endeavors
such as agriculture that can supply
food and income for their families.
About 63 percent of people who live in rural areas of Rwanda have access to safe
water, and 56 percent have improved sanitation facilities (UNICEF, 2013). The
inaccessibility of potable water, combined with a lack of sanitation facilities and a
poor understanding of the importance of good hygiene, is a major factor in the
unacceptably high rates of child and maternal disease and death in Rwanda. In
addition, only 16 percent of girls attend secondary school. Poor sanitation facilities
and a lack of safe water at school are contributing factors to this low attendance rate.
World Vision’s Response
In response to these challenges, World Vision launched the Rwanda Water,
Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Program in October 2011. The Rwanda WASH
Program will help approximately 290,000 people gain access to safe water over a
five-year period (October 2011 through September 2016). It also will help
339,000 people gain access to improved sanitation facilities and more than
500,000 individuals learn about basic hygiene skills over the same period.
The Rwanda WASH Program will be implemented in 27 World Vision Area
Development Programs (ADPs). All of these areas have low rates of access to
safe water and sanitation facilities, which contribute to a high prevalence of lifethreatening diseases, especially diarrhea and acute respiratory infections.
The program aims to achieve a target of 90 percent access to safe water supply and
86 percent access to improved sanitation in all 27 target ADPs by September 2016.
GLOBALLY, WORLD VISION
REACHES A NEW PERSON
WITH SAFE WATER EVERY
30 SECONDS.
PROJECT INITIATIVES | The goal of the Rwanda WASH Program is
to significantly improve child well-being by enabling families and communities
to achieve sustainable access to adequate potable water, improved sanitation
facilities, and good hygiene practices. Project initiatives include:
• Drilling boreholes and rehabilitating wells
S T RO N G WO M E N , S T RO N G WO R L D
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855.457.7979
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• Educating schoolchildren on the importance of hygiene
and sanitation
RWANDA
• Equipping schools with hand-washing stations, trash cans,
and latrines
TOTAL NUMBER OF
BENEFICIARIES
• Training communities on the safe handling of water
PROJECT OUTCOMES | Increasing access to safe, sustainable sources
of water and fostering knowledge of proper hygiene and environmental
sanitation practices will improve the health and socioeconomic well-being of
vulnerable communities in Rwanda, decrease the amount of time women and
girls spend traveling to draw water, and contribute to the following outcomes:
Safe water = 290,000
Sanitation facilities = 339,000
Hygiene education = 500,000
• Increased girls’ school attendance, level of education, and
literacy rates, as they no longer need to miss school to
secure water for their families and have adequate and
separate sanitation facilities
ANNUAL BUDGET
$4 million
• Improved health for women and girls who no longer have
to delay defecation and urination
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
• Reduced child and maternal mortality as a result of access
to safe WASH during childbirth
$50 | To provide clean
water for one person
• Increased dignity and reduced stress for girls and women,
particularly when symptoms associated with menstruation,
pregnancy, and childbirth can be managed discreetly
$360 | To train a school
in hygiene benefits and
practices
• Reduced physical injury from constantly lifting and carrying
heavy loads of water
• Reduced risk of rape and sexual assault, and increased
safety, as women and girls do not have to go to remote
and dangerous places to defecate or to fetch water at night
$15,000 | To drill one well
in a village
• Communities empowered to facilitate sustainable WASH
interventions
The Rwanda WASH Program trains community members, especially women,
to repair and maintain pumps, manage water sources, and serve on WASH
committees, which oversee community improvements. WASH committees are
formed or strengthened in each community where World Vision develops or
rehabilitates a water source.
Opportunity to Partner
Water is one of the basic
necessities of life. Thank you for
prayerfully considering how you
can partner with World Vision
to bring life-giving water and
improved health to hundreds
of thousands of women and girls
in Rwanda.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS TO DATE | From October 2011 through
March 2013, the Rwanda WASH Program helped transform the lives of more
than 64,000 people through access to clean water by creating or repairing
90 water points and empowering more than 21,000 households to treat
water. To improve sanitation coverage, nearly 70 communities learned about
the benefits of sanitation, resulting in the construction of 10,727 household
latrines. To date, more than 46,000 people have been impacted by the WASH
program’s hygiene-related activities, which include the construction of handwashing stations and trainings on the benefits and practices surrounding proper
hygiene and safe water handling, storage, and use.
May God bless you.
S T RO N G WO M E N , S T RO N G WO R L D
RWA14SWSPRO -WASH _11.06 .13 ©2013 Wor ld Vision, Inc.
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855.457.7979
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