Sharpening the saw

World Vision recently convened our annual Global Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Forum in Rwanda, bringing together most of our water staff as well as regional and senior World Vision leaders from around the world. The purpose of this meeting is to share best practices, continue to learn and improve, and refine and sharpen our business plans, including our commitment to reach 30 million additional people with clean water between 2023 and  2030.

Our sessions at the Forum included specific discussions on gender equity, monitoring, reaching the most vulnerable, working across sectors, forging partnerships, financing, and appropriately articulating our Christian identity.

Several of our donors and partners joined the Forum, and I’m grateful that the number and diversity of our partnerships have grown over the decade that we’ve been convening this meeting. We started this Forum during our first 5-year business plan that covered 2011 to 2015. The slide below shows that our partnerships were pretty limited prior to 2010, began to grow as we approached our second 5-year business plan in 2015, and now represent a wide range of organizations. While this slide does not include all of our partners, it reflects most recent Forum attendees. 

Reapplying success

We shared lessons learned from our experience in finishing the job of reaching everyone, everywhere we worked in 39 sub-districts in Rwanda with clean water. This amazing achievement has resulted in more than 1.2 million people reached with clean water, mostly through large pipeline projects constructed in collaboration with the Rwandan government. The amount of piping that we provided in Rwanda reached 1,648 miles, about the distance from Boston to Key West. We are reapplying what we’ve learned to finish the job in more than 100 sub-districts in Zambia and in 49 municipalities in Honduras.     

Mapping water points

We’re applying our learnings in mapping water points in Rwanda to our projects in Zambia and Honduras. World Vision has now become a global leader in mapping water points using the industry accepted tool called mWater. The slide below shows that our teams have now mapped more than 122,000 water points — including 20,000 in Zambia alone — to determine where improved water points are needed to finish the job of reaching people, schools, and healthcare facilities.

Impact

During the Forum, we shared the cumulative impact of World Vision's water work since 2016 through the support of our donors. We have now reached more than 29 million people with clean water since 2016. This is equivalent to the population of the state of Texas, the second most populous state in the U.S. This track record of results gives us confidence that we can continue to grow and meet our new commitments. 

World Water Day 2024 livestream

On Friday, March 22, I’ll be co-hosting an all-day livestream event for World Water Day. We’ll have live interviews, hear inspiring stories, and reveal a few special surprises as we collaborate with Team World Vision, which equips athletes of all abilities to raise funds for clean water through World Vision. Together, we'll  bring awareness to the hundreds of millions of people who still lack access to clean water and raise funds toward our goal of ensuring that everyone, everywhere we work has access to clean water. To join the livestream at any time that day, use this LINK.

Prayer requests

Give thanks for World Vision donors and partners that have helped equip millions of people with access to clean water in the name of Jesus. 

Pray that every child can attend a school with access to clean water and sanitation and hygiene facilities so they can learn with dignity in a healthy environment.

Pray that World Vision will be able to continue to serve vulnerable people including those living in the toughest places.