With its stunning beauty and rich natural resources, Africa is still ravaged by its limited access to safe water supplies. 750,000 children die each year from diarrheal diseases alone in Sub-Saharan Africa. Specifically, Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda, has over 80,000 children attending primary schools without safe water.
With help from partners around the world, we can meet the needs of the children of Kigali. In December 2008 we began work on a project that will, when complete, ensure that all primary-school students in the city will have access to safe drinking water.
The long-term success of our work is dependent upon the local community taking ownership of their own water resources. As with nearly all our projects, we begin by training staff from local churches, schools, and community groups. These teams will work with our Water for Life staff on a daily basis to complete more than 300 water systems at roughly 80 school campuses. A typical campus in Kigali will have three or four school buildings for children from kindergarten through sixth grade.
The total cost is about $15 per student, including instruction of both students and teachers in sanitation and hygiene education by community health workers.
Adopt-A-School
Schools, offices, churches, groups of friends, here is an opportunity! If you are interested in "adopting" a school in Rwanda so that it can provide safe water for its students, please
let us know. We will keep you updated along the way with everything from construction progress to photos and stories from the students themselves. Whether you raise enough for a small school or an entire community campus, what you do will make a huge difference in the lives of these children, their teachers, and the future of this nation!