February Update

Rufinia lives in the Wawa Bar community in Nicaragua.  Wawa Bar is a historic coastal Miskito fishing village located at the mouth of the Wawa River in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, likely dating back hundreds of years.  It is located approximately 15 kilometers from the city of Bilwi, where our WaterAid Nicaragua office is located.

Wawa Bar is one of the bigger communities we work in with 1,428 people divided among 347 families and 248 homes. Within the past two years, 763 people have now benefitted from 112 rainwater catchment systems and 281 people have benefitted from new and improved sanitation facilities.

Rainwater harvesting tanks save water during the rainy season so that families have a supply of water all year round, even during the dry season. These tanks have a capacity of 4,000 liters and are connected to taps near the family’s home. The improved sanitation facilities are bathrooms that have a handwashing station and toilets connected to small septic tanks and a leaching field.

To ensure these systems are sustainable WaterAid trains women, like Rufinia, to install water, sanitation and hygiene solutions. See how Rufinia is creating change in her community!

WaterAid placed 800 children’s school bags on the famous steps of St Paul’s Cathedral in London. The bags represent the 800 children who die everyday from dirty water, not reaching their fifth birthday.  On each bag you could find the name of real children whose lives were cut short by diarrheal diseases linked to dirty water. Together, we can change this.

The first step is to learn about the water crisis and how that affects people around the world. The second step is to get involved and take action! Join us in making history and bringing clean water to everyone, everywhere.

Supporters like you help fuel our programs and have been helping bring clean water and toilets to communities since 1981, helping communities help themselves.

Together we’ve reached 25.8 million people with clean water! That's 25.8 million more healthy and independent people in the world, 25.8 million more people contributing to the economic vitality of their community. This past winter, we saw again, how together we make a bigger difference.

Check out some of our favorite comments!

The 'WaterAid Explains' series answers some commonly asked questions such as "why do we talk about toilets?" or "what has water got to do with gender equality?"

Check out this series to learn more about our work!