Watercan: An Africa Charity Making A Difference In The Poorest Regions
If you are aware of the devastating conditions under which many people are living in Sub-Saharan Africa, and if you're looking to make a difference, WaterCan is an Africa charity that can help you reach out. WaterCan is a leading Canadian charity that is dedicated to fighting global poverty by helping the world's poorest people gain access to clean water, basic sanitation, and hygiene education.
Over 1.2 million children, women, and men in the world's poorest regions have been helped by WaterCan's impactful programs since 1987. Today, this Africa charity has placed a primary focus on efforts in four east African countries. Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda have among the poorest regions of the world and WaterCan is dedicated to delivering clean water and basic sanitation to those in greatest need.
The WaterCan Approach
As a successful Africa Charity, WaterCan attributes its success to the following approaches, which guide its international development efforts:
Integration
All of WaterCan's overseas projects include three important components: Clean Water Supply [wells, protected springs, rainwater tanks], Basic Sanitation Facilities [ventilated improved pit [VIP] latrines], and Hygiene Promotion.
Participation
WaterCan projects encourage local participation and empowerment. They gain community participation in every phase of their project's implementation from the planning to the management and maintenance. Local participation instills a sense of ownership by the community. When children and adults of the community participate in the bettering of their community, there is an increase in likelihood that the benefits of new water and sanitation services will be sustained for a long period of time. As a result, WaterCan only supports projects within communities that have identified a lack of access to safe water supply as an enormous problem and have expressed a strong commitment to finding local water and sanitation solutions.
Gender Focus
WaterCan knows that a lack of clean water and sanitation services affects all members of a community, but not all equally. Women and girls tend to be most highly affected. It is they who are primarily responsible for fetching the water required for household use. In addition to attending school, caring for children, growing crops, or running small businesses, women and young girls are required to carry water containers as heavy as 20 kilograms over long distances, which can result in serious health issues.
WaterCan has placed great importance on fully consulting women and engaging them in all stages of project implementation. By incorporating gender considerations into their project designs and management, such issues as location, height of taps, and timing of community meetings are created with the greatest possible positive impact on women's everyday lives.
Sustainability
WaterCan ensures that the projects they support are long-term and sustainable at the community level. Upon completion of projects, community members will have the knowledge requiredto manage and maintain the new facilities without the help of WaterCan or partner organizations.
Invested in Partners
WaterCan's model is based on establishing long-term partnerships with local African NGOs. WaterCan places a great importance on providing partners with capacity building opportunities to strengthen their ability to carry outhigh quality integrated water supply, sanitation, and hygiene promotion projects.
Clean water, basic sanitation, and hygiene education are fundamental to the fight against global poverty.For more information about WaterCan, visit watercan.
Over 1.2 million children, women, and men in the world's poorest regions have been helped by WaterCan's impactful programs since 1987. Today, this Africa charity has placed a primary focus on efforts in four east African countries. Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda have among the poorest regions of the world and WaterCan is dedicated to delivering clean water and basic sanitation to those in greatest need.
The WaterCan Approach
As a successful Africa Charity, WaterCan attributes its success to the following approaches, which guide its international development efforts:
Integration
All of WaterCan's overseas projects include three important components: Clean Water Supply [wells, protected springs, rainwater tanks], Basic Sanitation Facilities [ventilated improved pit [VIP] latrines], and Hygiene Promotion.
Participation
WaterCan projects encourage local participation and empowerment. They gain community participation in every phase of their project's implementation from the planning to the management and maintenance. Local participation instills a sense of ownership by the community. When children and adults of the community participate in the bettering of their community, there is an increase in likelihood that the benefits of new water and sanitation services will be sustained for a long period of time. As a result, WaterCan only supports projects within communities that have identified a lack of access to safe water supply as an enormous problem and have expressed a strong commitment to finding local water and sanitation solutions.
Gender Focus
WaterCan knows that a lack of clean water and sanitation services affects all members of a community, but not all equally. Women and girls tend to be most highly affected. It is they who are primarily responsible for fetching the water required for household use. In addition to attending school, caring for children, growing crops, or running small businesses, women and young girls are required to carry water containers as heavy as 20 kilograms over long distances, which can result in serious health issues.
WaterCan has placed great importance on fully consulting women and engaging them in all stages of project implementation. By incorporating gender considerations into their project designs and management, such issues as location, height of taps, and timing of community meetings are created with the greatest possible positive impact on women's everyday lives.
Sustainability
WaterCan ensures that the projects they support are long-term and sustainable at the community level. Upon completion of projects, community members will have the knowledge requiredto manage and maintain the new facilities without the help of WaterCan or partner organizations.
Invested in Partners
WaterCan's model is based on establishing long-term partnerships with local African NGOs. WaterCan places a great importance on providing partners with capacity building opportunities to strengthen their ability to carry outhigh quality integrated water supply, sanitation, and hygiene promotion projects.
Clean water, basic sanitation, and hygiene education are fundamental to the fight against global poverty.For more information about WaterCan, visit watercan.