Shuda (left) and her friend Meskerem drawing water

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Bowolicho village is located in the Hula Area Program operation area, 231 miles south of Addis Abba, Ethiopia’s capital. There was a dire need for water in this area. Schoolgirls of all ages use to walk a half hour to draw water from an unprotected source called Bansa spring.

The schoolgirls who attended school in the morning left home as early as at 6:00am and walked in a group to the unkept spring. The water they found was not safe for their health. Keeping their jerry cans in two or sometimes three lines and waiting for turn was the day to day experience for them. They walked back home for another thirty minutes and upon getting home, they cooked for family and handle other activities.

Last year, we announced a new audacious goal of providing clean water to everyone, everywhere we work in Rwanda by 2022. This article provides an update on that effort. 

Our commitment to Rwanda is complementary and flows out of two other high-profile commitments that we have made for World Vision’s water programs. The biggest goal is to reach everyone, everywhere we work with clean water, which is 50 million people, by 2030. This is consistent with and shows World Vision’s commitment to help achieve the UN Sustainable Goal 6.0 of universal access to clean water and sanitation by 2030. To ensure that we stay on track, we set an interim goal of reaching 20 million people between 2015 and 2020. We’re on track towards both of these and have reached 10.4 million people with clean water in the first 2.5 years.

“I lost my pregnancy because my village had no proper water source,” says Kanyanga Muyenga, a 25-year-old woman from Western Zambia. Kanyanga is a young, single mother of two adorable children, a 10-year-old girl named Nyambe and a 17-month-old boy named Masheke. She lives in a small remote village called Chimopu, located on sandy terrain north of World Vision’s Luampa Area Program (AP). Kanyanga has lived in her village her entire life. To make ends meet, she grows cash crops like cassava and corn.

Instead of celebrating adolescence, 19-year-old, mother of two, Malita, recalls days filled with pain and societal seclusion, which resulted in her dropping out of school. Malita remembers that she and her female peers had to endure taunts and stigmas at school where there was no support as they went through adolescence. 

Easy and sustainable access to clean water changes everything. Once World Vision provides a water source in a community, we want to make sure that the water continues to flow.

Through independent evaluations, we have learned a key predictor of long-term sustainability of the water points is to have a water committee that takes ownership of the water point. Critical work of the water committee is to charge a small and affordable fee so that there are funds available for ongoing maintenance and repair. World Vision has an excellent record of long-term sustainability of water points because we are able to walk alongside communities for an average of 15 years to ensure that the water committee is self-sufficient. 

Isaiah is the son of Adele and Kevin LaCombe, members of World Vision's National Leadership Council. This is his story.

I am Isaiah LaCombe.

I'm a fourteen-year-old, which means I'm a part of generation Z, and I live in the great state of Washington. Lots of people say where they live is the best place on earth, but when I say it I mean it. Washington isn't great because of the landmarks, or the culture, or even the amazing views. Sure, those things don't hurt, but what truly makes Washington so great is that life never gets all that tough. That's not to say there aren’t people here who struggle, because there are. But no matter who you are, living here never gets too tough.

Because I live in such a great place I’ve never truly understood what it means to be the poorest of the poor.

Lila and John Trull are members of World Vision's National Leadership Council. This is their story.

In 1999 Lila and John Trull, parents of three daughters, visited a Mexican orphanage with their church to relieve staff members in desperate need of a vacation. There a little boy named Fernando captured Lila’s heart. When they returned to the orphanage in 2002, the couple discovered that although they’d been praying for Fernando to be reunited with his family, he was still living in the orphanage. When the Trulls left Mexico, Lila told John that it would be too difficult to return unless it was to invite Fernando to become a part of their family. That very night, Lila was awakened by God’s voice saying, “Through love all things are possible.” Eight months later Fernando joined the Trull family.

• Partnership has impacted 6.4 million people and provided 2 billion liters of clean water in 37 countries.
• Innovative P&G Purifier of Water packets provide instant relief in natural disasters and “a bridge” to long-term water solutions.
• In just the last year, P&G has provided grants so that World Vision can provide more than 350 million liters of clean water in 10 countries in Asia and Africa including for the drought in East Africa.

The global water crisis and the lack of clean water oppresses people in extreme poverty, especially women and girls, who walk an average of 6 kilometers to get water. Globally, 844 million people live without access to safe water within 30 minutes of their home.

This year on World Water Day, World Vision renews our 5-year commitment to reach 20 million people with clean water between 2016 and 2020, and to reach every person, everywhere we work, by 2030 — a total of 50 million people.