Malawi
In the face of climate change and limited resources, this community came up with a solution to help fund the ongoing maintenance of their new water system: growing bananas.
Phaiyce has persevered to reach secondary school. At 14, she’s preparing to take exams this year. Yet millions of students won’t reach this point in their education as they drop out due to poor school water, sanitation, and hygiene.
Meet Lennie, a passionate young woman whose journey with Water For People began in 2015, when she was only 11 years old. That was the year Water For People built bathrooms, handwashing facilities, and menstrual hygiene management units to support students’ sanitation and hygiene needs at Lennie’s school, Chilomoni Primary.
Meet Finalisi. She’s a mother of four, a farmer, and a volunteer with an absolutely critical role: making sure clean water is available every day.
Situated between hills, this hard-to-reach village is in the Chiradzulu District in southern Malawi. A mild, cool climate attracted settlers from nearby Mozambique in the early ‘90s who were in search of land for farming. However, this pursuit of greener pasture led to a major problem – lack of water.
For Prisca, hygiene has changed everything. A mother of five, Pricsa lives in the Misanjo village in southern Malawi. She introduces herself with a huge smile. She is proud of her role in the community and the story she has to tell.
The 216 villages in the Traditional Authority of Chapananga in Chikwawa District in Malawi have been declared open defecation free – a huge milestone for the district, and for Water For People.
Combine baking soda, oil, and extract from a local Malawian tree, and it equals better hygiene for an entire community.
On any given day, as she sees her kids off to school or prepares food for her family, Maureen could get a call from a community in her region. She’d drop everything in that moment, grab her tools, and head off on her bicycle.
Every day at 7 am, Cementi Mendozo opens his grocery store in a local trading center in Chikwawa District, Malawi.