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News from Burkina Faso

A new country office has opened and a country representative appointed for Burkina Faso - one of WaterAid's newest country programmes.

Burkina Faso  is one of the smallest and most densely populated West African countries. It is also one of the ten poorest countries in the world where less than 30% of the population have access to clean water sources and hygienic sanitation.

WaterAid started a pilot project in 2000 with three partners - two rural community based organisations and one large non governmental organisation. Following its success WaterAid began developing these partnerships and building on the pilot project in three districts; Garango, Ramongo and Bokin.

Towards the end of 2003 the projects extended to the capital, Ouagadougou, where there is increasing demand for water in slum settlements as more poor, rural farmers move to the city looking for work.

WaterAid has already had great success in Burkina Faso, the second Francophone West African country it works in. On 30 October 2003 the Prime Minister, Ernest Paramanga Yonli, launched the country's WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene for all) campaign during the opening ceremony of the African Ministerial Conference on Water. WaterAid are strong advocates of this campaign and had a national presence in local, national and international media promoting the importance of WASH and WaterAid's work.

By December 2003 WaterAid's partner in the Ramongo district, the Association les Mains Unies du Sahel (AMUS), had created a new borehole and rehabilitated another, bringing desperately needed clean water to those who most need it. They have also reported that 70% of the communities where they have been promoting hygiene education are now washing their hands before preparing and eating food and after defecation.

DAKUPA, another WaterAid partner, have instigated a latrine building and hygiene programme, training 32 hygiene promotion volunteers and 16 masons, who have already built 200 of the 553 latrine slabs needed for the programme.

Yéréfolo Mallé has been appointed as the country representative for Burkina Faso . He is based in the new country office in the capital and will be ensuring that the new three-year country strategy - finalised by WaterAid in May 2003 - will meet the needs of the poorest communities who are currently without access to safe water and hygienic sanitation.

WaterAid named UK charity of the year

Omitee collects water from a tapstand in Silchari village, Bangladesh. She is one of the 7.5 million people helped by WaterAid to date.

Credit: WaterAid / Abir Abdullah

WaterAid won the Charity of the Year  award at the UK Charity Awards 2003. The award was to honour a charity which has achieved consistent excellent service to beneficiaries, promoted and raised the profile of a cause-related issue, demonstrated transparency in activities and has achieved a high degree of public support and prominence.

Successes highlighted by the judges at the event at Grosvenor House in London, included WaterAid achieving its most successful fundraising year ever and lobbying for a UN declaration of water as a human right and for a Millennium Development Goal for sanitation.

"WaterAid and its partners are deeply honoured to have received this high accolade from the UK Charity Awards," says Ravi Narayanan, WaterAid's Director. "Our organisation had a tremendous year in terms of our fundraising, lobbying, profile and delivery of services to the poorest people.

The enormous challenge, to get water and sanitation to the millions of people who are still in need remains WaterAid's mission. In receiving this award we hope more people will be made aware of the desperate need for the most basic services for the world's poor."

West Africa Regional Fundraising

Gaining more funds in West Africa will enable WaterAid to help more of the poorest people gain access to safe water and sanitation.

Credit: WaterAid / Caroline Penn

In September 2003 WaterAid ran its first ever regional fundraising workshop in Abuja, Nigeria. Twenty five delegates, representing WaterAid and partner staff West Africa regional fundraising from four countries (Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali and Nigeria) took part in the three day workshop which focused on raising funds from voluntary and statutory sources.

There was a huge range of fundraising experience among the staff attending, but there was also something new for everyone as the topics included raising money from companies, trusts, individuals, events and government sources as well as writing proposals and developing relationships with donors.

There was lively debate throughout the workshop, particularly about ethical issues and managing expectations, and partner and WaterAid staff left with exciting action plans.

The workshop was a big success, and has already led to plans for similar workshops in other skills, such as advocacy, throughout the world.

WaterAid America

WaterAid has been given non-profit status within the USA, which allows us to operate there as a charity. And this means that individuals and organisations who pay tax in the USA are now able to make tax-deductible donations to WaterAid America.

We are very grateful for the support of our Board of Directors and Honorary President, Marilyn Ware, in this new venture where we will primarily be looking for funding from US based foundations to support our work.

We are off to a flying start with a grant of US$15,000 from the Conservation Food and Health Foundation based in Boston for our work on ecological sanitation in Malawi  and have a number of other applications pending. For more information please email inquiries@wateraid.org or call +44 (0)20 7793 4532.

World Water Day

A mural outlines the importance of good sanitation in India.

Credit: Martin Argles

March 22 is World Water Day, the UN designated day to look at water issues around the world. WaterAid will be celebrating this day in a variety of ways. In Nigeria and Madagascar it will be marked with events for the WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene for all) campaign while in Uganda there will be national and local events including radio shows and exhibitions.

In the UK, among other things, WaterAid will be launching a Give an hour scheme, World Water Day where supporters can donate an hour of their pay to WaterAid, asking schoolchildren to collect buckets of pennies for buckets of water and will also be publishing a new report examining the impact that the lack of water and sanitation have on education. To read more about this issue turn see 'No water, no school'.

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