Supplying Water, Inspiring Hope
Two billion people worldwide live without access to clean, safe water. Yet it is essential for health. And where water is scarce, the daily grind of finding it falls to women and girls. In water-stressed communities in Haiti, Kenya, Peru, and South Sudan, CMMB’s partnership with the P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program (CSDW) has been vital in our mission to increase access to safe drinking water.
Where water emergencies exist, we meet with community members and local leaders in homes, schools, and health facilities to discuss the importance of healthy hygiene and drinking only clean, safe water. We address myths and misconceptions about water treatment and explain how to use P&G Purifier of Water (POW) sachets. Community leaders and health professionals advise us where to distribute the POWs so that they reach the most vulnerable families. After children’s diarrhea is drastically reduced, mothers embrace the message. As a result, we have witnessed communities recognize the importance of a permanent source of clean, safe water—as in Kenya.
Photos by Gareth Bentley for CMMB
In that nation’s drought-affected Kitui County, women and children were walking over six miles just to fetch water. With funding from CSDW, and in collaboration with the Kitui County government, we constructed a subsurface dam powered by solar pumps, with pipelines to distribute water. In addition, in South Sudan and Zambia, CSDW has supported us to repair or drill boreholes and install rainwater storage tanks.
Thanks to our partnership, children spend their days in school, unburdened by the threat of water-borne illnesses. Households can more easily maintain a hygienic environment with clean water, and when local health workers deliver essential services, they can do so with clean hands.
Together, over the last eight years, CSDW and CMMB have provided more than 586 million liters of clean, safe water to vulnerable families. The impact has been real and important. This year, we celebrate our longterm partnership with the P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program in recognition of an impactful milestone: CSDW’s 20th anniversary. Thank you, P&G.