Water

These PSS centers help orphans find their place within the community, provide a forum for them to solve their problems and make friends, and help them become confident in sharing their ideas. They learn about teamwork, cooperation, how to support each other’s efforts and, most importantly, how to become self-reliant. These orphaned children are capable and innovative and are determined to succeed in life despite widely-held negative perceptions about them.

Polluted and inadequate fresh water supply is linked to the incidence of water borne diseases such as malaria, cholera, skin ailments, diarrhea, urinary tract infections, and intestinal worms. The World Health Organisation estimates that three out of every five infant deaths in sub-Saharan Africa are due to water borne diseases.

What We Do

Rafiki carries out water campaigns to raise community awareness about water borne disease so that people know what they can do to improve drinking water quality and so improve their health.

Rafiki mentors Community Health Workers (CHW) to be advocates for protecting public health by raising awareness on the importance of clean water and good sanitation. CHWs encourage people to adopt practical hygiene behavior including hand washing and latrine useage, as well as timely detection and treatment of water borne diseases. CHWs are also trained in basic wound care and the dangers of dehydration in cases of diarrhea and methods of treating it.

Completed Community Wide Water Projects

A 2004 water campaign in Lusi Village set out to create a clean and stable water source. First, the roof was replaced at the primary school and rainwater tanks installed, providing the school with clean drinking water.

Next, the community rehabilitated their dam. A bulldozer enlarged the width and depth of the dam, increasing water storage capacity from 6,000m3 to 14,000m3. The community then manually dug a channel to create a filtration chamber for water to flow into a still well and the dam was fenced off to prevent direct access by animals. Water purification plants were then introduced into the dam to assist in the natural removal of suspended particles and bacteria.

The improvement of this dam has created a stable water source for more than 3,000 people and at least 5,000 livestock. The benefits of this project are particularly clear during the dry season, when some people would previously have had to walk more than 10km to collect their daily water.