World Vision Water Loans Expand
World Vision provides clean water access to about 3 million people per year. Through the generosity of our donor partners, our team of water professionals are able to provide water access at community water collection points, in schools, and health care centers. We also train the community to ensure sustainability of the water points. As part of our 2021-2025 business plan, we are providing loans to community members so that they can have a higher level of service including household water connections, toilets, and water tanks. The loans are provided through World Vision’s microfinance organization called VisionFund International.
World Vision is not the first organization to provide water loans, and, in fact, Water.org has more than a decade of experience in providing these loans. Instead of reinventing the wheel, we partnered with Water.org – first in Ethiopia and more recently in Kenya. Water.org graciously shared their expertise in developing and servicing the loan products. Along the way, we’ve seen that World Vision offers some unique advantages in providing these loans. First, because of our holistic model to address poverty, World Vision has a sustained presence in communities for an average of 12 to 15 years. This allows us to develop deep trust in communities which helps tremendously in the introduction of any new ideas including water loans. Second, instead of identifying and working through a new microfinance institution that may not have the same goals, World Vision has our own microfinance institution in VisionFund International, which provides more than 1 million loans to low-income households. Third, our team of more than 1,200 water, sanitation, and hygiene professionals are well suited to build awareness on and create the demand needed for the water loans.
Our work in Ethiopia and Kenya has shown that most of the people we serve cannot afford to purchase a household water connection or water tank without a loan. However, they are able to make the affordable monthly loan payments, and, importantly, see great value in the products they are obtaining with the loans. The toilets provide security and dignity particularly to women and girls. Having a household water connection versus even a short walk to a community water point can result in a lot of saved time in hauling water and improves household hygiene because of the greater availability of water. The water tanks provide an easy way to irrigate household gardens which results in a surplus of food that improves nutrition and increases incomes when the excess food is sold.
My colleague at VisionFund International, Kaitlin McGarvey, recently wrote a blog about our experience with World Vision water loans that does an excellent job of detailing the specific advantages of these loans. And, we prepared this 2 ½ minute video so you can go to Kenya and see for yourself the impact of these loans.