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“Let’s get your baby cleaned up.” Common words heard as a newborn is gently washed and swaddled for the very first time. And what’s the first thing a doctor or nurse does when seeing a new mother in the hospital? The familiar, methodical, and reassuring action of washing their hands.
But what if there was no clean water at the hospital, unless you brought it yourself? No handwashing facilities? When baby is on the way, these are terrifying possibilities no mother should have to face.
Can you imagine a mother delivering a baby without clean water? Or doctors and nurses trying to protect newborns and new moms from infection in unsanitary conditions?
Anzazi had to wait hours for dirty water after giving birth
Anzazi (middle) holds her 1-month-old son, Solomon, outside the clinic where he was born — a clinic that’s entirely dependent on rainwater. |
At the Mbwaleni Dispensary, a clinic in Kenya, medical staff rely on rainwater stored in two big tanks. When the tanks run out, mothers like Anzazi must bring their own water to wash themselves and their newborns after giving birth.
Anzazi went into labor around midnight. By 6 a.m., her third child, Solomon, was born. But she had to wait hours to get access to water to clean herself and her new son. Her mother-in-law had to make the two-hour round trip to a dam — where the water was dirty and shared with animals.
“I know it is important for me to make sure the child is cleaned immediately after the birth so he would not be exposed to any infection,” says Anzazi. But she had no way to do so.
The lack of clean water access poses a serious problem not only for mothers, but also for medical staff. They can’t properly sanitize their hands and equipment, which dramatically increases the potential for life-threatening infections.
“I’m speaking on behalf of other mothers,” says Anzazi, who was fortunate to give birth to a healthy child. “If we had clean water in the community, it would really help us and help us to live a good life.”
Hardworking medical staff want to wash their hands
Nurse Daniel examines a young child at the Mbwaleni Dispensary in Kenya. His clinic’s sinks are often unused, as the operation runs on rainwater. |
Nurse Daniel is in charge of the Mbwaleni Dispensary. His team sees numerous patients each day and attends to pregnant mothers giving birth — all without readily available clean water.
Besides needing clean water for deliveries, the staff need to wash their equipment and sanitize their hands between patients. But when their two collections tanks run dry, they must buy untreated water from the nearby dam.
In October 2024, the situation came to a head. “In the next two to three weeks, we will have no water at all. If we don’t have water, we have a problem,” said Daniel at the time.
Stories like Anzazi’s and Daniel’s are repeated across the world
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In the areas where World Vision works, half the health centers don’t have clean water. Five in six of them lack even basic handwashing facilities. This solvable problem is leading to infections that claim the lives of millions of babies and mothers each year.
But we’re called to be the hands and feet of Jesus, and there is good news to share. World Vision is reaching more health centers with clean water — as well as handwashing facilities, infection prevention protocols, and training of healthcare workers — than any other
nongovernmental organization.
With your help and God’s grace, we’re committed, by 2030, to upgrade 3,000 health facilities globally with clean water, serving an estimated 30 million people. Together, we’ll also train and equip even more hardworking clinic staff and community health workers, who serve families far out of reach of clinics — providing essential preventive care and treatment for even more vulnerable children. And we’ll provide much-needed medical equipment and supplies for frontline staff like Daniel, empowering them to save and change lives for the long term.
Please prayerfully consider giving a gift that makes 4.5 times the impact.
