Changing futures for good
Your support for clean water isn’t just a drop in the ocean – it’s a ripple that changes communities.
Clean water isn’t just a necessity, but a catalyst for change. When people have to work hard to find water or suffer from drinking dirty water, it takes a lot of energy and focus. The impact can be most profound for women and girls, who often bear the burden of collecting water – and who can help unlock the potential of their whole community.
Clean water and decent toilets close to home change everything. With these essentials, people stay healthy, so they can focus their energy on improving their lives. When women and girls no longer have to make long journeys or wait in line to collect water, it saves hours every day. Hours they can spend working and studying for a better future. With clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene, everyone can unlock their potential and whole communities thrive.
Stories from our work
Living healthy lives
With clean water in health clinics, new moms like Sa-ambo Mueril (left) can give birth safely and help the next generation have the best start in life.
"The patients are very happy… and they can protect themselves from disease when they come here.”
— Bukari Sulemana, Physician, Worikambo, Ghana
Learning for the future
With clean water in school and clean, private facilities to manage their periods, girls like Anju can get to school on time, focus on their education and make the most of everything life has to offer.
“In the future... I want to become a volleyball player!”
— Anju, Dolakha, Nepal
Earning for a better life
For Champa clean water close to home gave her the time to start her own business. Now, she can support her family and provide a valuable service for her community, too.
“Most of the money that I earn from my shop, I spend it on my son’s wellbeing. I hope that my son has a bright future.”
— Champa, Shyamnagar, Bangladesh
Hope unleashed: Bangladesh
How one marginalized community in Bangladesh is harnessing the power of clean water, with your support.
For the Munda people in Kaliganj, Satkhira, on Bangladesh’s southwestern coast, water used to be a curse. Every day, women and girls would make a backbreaking two-mile walk in search of drinkable water, robbing them of precious time and energy. Flimsy “hanging toilets” suspended over water would contaminate the surroundings and get washed away by floods. Many families left to find new lives in overcrowded cities. A whole community missed the chance to build a future for itself.
How clean water is bringing health and hope
With your support, we worked alongside the community to build an underground reservoir that collects rainwater, so people have clean drinking water near their homes all year round. People have also constructed sturdy toilets that will stand strong when extreme weather hits. Now, they have more time to learn, earn and play their part in making their community a better place to live.
In Bangladesh:
29.8 million people don’t have clean water at home.
45% of the people don’t have a decent toilet.
Recent project milestones
Installation of an underground rainwater tank that holds 65,000 liters
Construction of brick-built toilets that can withstand floods and storms
Hygiene training to stop the spread of disease
Voices from the community
“We have to change”
Community leader Gopal is bringing people together through hygiene training sessions, so they can reduce the risk of disease and change the prospects for future generations.
“Elderly, young people, and children join together to learn,” he says. “We have to change for our daughters and young women.”
“We are living a new life. Now I speak and learn to connect without being shy.”
For Bishakha, clean water has brought the confidence to meet with other women and take an active role in community life. Through the hygiene training sessions, women are having their say about the improvements they want to see, so everyone can have a healthier future.
This is like a dream
"This is like a dream"
Shampa whole body would ache after spending half her day collecting water. She would struggle to sleep and take care of her two sons, and her eight-year-old was always sick from using dirty toilets. Now, with water storage, taps and decent toilets near their home, Shampa has the time and strength to look after her family. “My health has improved a lot in a month already,” she says. “My children are growing healthy, and none of them are suffering from fever or stomach-ache. For the first time, the community feels respected and valued. Now families do not need to migrate."
Bars of hope
When clean water arrived in her village in Madagascar, budding entrepreneur Rojo got to work to keep her community healthy
Rojo is a businesswoman with big plans in Manjakandriana, Madagascar. But in the past, there was no time to think of tomorrow. She would spend hours each day collecting water from a dirty pond by the rice field at the bottom of the hill. Now, with a water tap just a few meters from her home, she’s seized the opportunity to change her future.
Seizing opportunities
Rojo has taken out a business start-up loan from her community’s savings group, which was set up with training from our local partner so people can make the most of their new water supply. She’s investing the money to make and sell soap, from a simple recipe that her sister taught her: caustic soda, oil and, most importantly, clean water. She’s inspired by her mom, who died during the COVID-19 pandemic and was an enthusiastic member of the savings group. “I am so proud of myself that with the little I do, our community can access my soap and wash their hands properly,” she says. “This is my own way to make my mom proud and keep doing what she started."
Turning over a new leaf
For Ama Isabel in Leotela, Timor-Leste, clean water means planting for tomorrow and taking care of her grandchildren’s future.
Imagine if collecting water for your family took you three hours. And then imagine you might have to go three times a day to provide for your eight children. That was daily life for Ama Isabel. She had little time left for earning an income, and the weight of the load would make her whole body hurt.
Time to grow
Now, with your support, we’ve worked with Ama Isabel’s community to install a water system in the village, so she has water close at hand. Ama Isabel has more strength, time and water to grow vegetables such as cassava and sweet potatoes. It means nutritious food for her family, and an income to buy books and pens for her grandchildren’s education. “I feel like my grandchildren’s life will be better than ours,” she says, “because they can just focus on their study or collecting firewood or vegetables, rather than losing more time collecting water."
A world of possibilities
Muluwork is taking control of her family’s future in Ethiopia, thanks to clean water.
It’s a daily challenge navigating life as a visually impaired person, let alone having to collect enough clean water every day. But that’s the harsh reality Muluwork and her husband faced in Finote Selam, Ethiopia. In the past, Muluwork would rely on a walking stick or her neighbors to guide her on the 30-minute trek to their river. But even once there, the water was unsafe to drink. Muluwork shared her challenges with our local team, and has a brand-new water tap inside her home. The work was part of ‘20 Towns’, a partnership with Yorkshire Water that has supported local utility providers to improve water services in Finote Selam.
Growing up healthy
Now, Muluwork is the happiest person in her neighborhood, and her three-year-old, Yeabsira, loves washing herself with the tap water. “I can compare and tell you the difference that we have in our lives now,” says Muluwork. “My children can wash whenever they want, and they will grow up being healthy and clean.” The impact doesn’t end there. “I am even planning to continue my education in the coming year,” she says. With clean water, Muluwork can finally focus on her children and her studies, changing their lives for the better.
Your lasting gift to the future
How your legacy could help future generations live life to the fullest – with clean water.
Learn more about legacy givingLike you, we are passionate about water because it’s essential to life. With clean water, people can lead healthy lives filled with promise and potential. Since WaterAid was founded 40 years ago, we have directly reached close to 30 million people with clean water. This progress wouldn’t be possible without people like you. Your kind and generous support makes the world a better place. But we still live in a world where almost one in ten don’t have clean water close to home. And where millions of women and girls can spend up to four hours a day collecting water.
13.6% of our work is funded by gifts in wills.
These gifts are crucial to our mission.
There is so much more to do. And we can do it – with your help. If you are looking for ways to make a larger impact on the lives of people around the world through clean water access, we are here to help.
There are many options available to you to help you make the kind of impact you want to make on clean water access, many of them with additional tax benefits.
These include, but are not limited to:
- Designating WaterAid as a beneficiary of your will or trust
- If you are 70 ½ or older, making a qualified charitable distribution from your IRA
- Making a gift through your Donor-Advised Fund
- Donating stocks or securities
- Setting up a monthly recurring gift through your credit card or bank account
If you are looking to leave a legacy of clean water and changed lives, we can help you do that. And we are happy to walk you through your options so that you can make the type of impact you want to make. Because gifts like these? They change lives.
Lives like eight-year-old Olivia, in the picture above. Olivia lives in Madagascar and used to miss school to collect heavy buckets of water. Now, with clean water and decent toilets at school, she can stay healthy and learn for her future.
Can you imagine this wonderful change across thousands of communities around the world? That’s what’s possible thanks to people like you. It’s a legacy you can be proud of.
When you leave your legacy, you’re making a choice about what really matters. If you choose to add WaterAid to your will, you’re joining a community of people who believe water is the bedrock of a better world. It’s a special, selfless act for future generations. If you have any questions about leaving a gift in your will, or want to talk about the options available to you to make a larger impact, contact us at [email protected] and we’re happy to help you in crafting the legacy you want to leave.
We want to reach everyone, everywhere with clean water
We have a presence in 30 countries, working to change the lives of the poorest and most marginalized people. Since 1981, we have reached 29 million people with clean water, 29 million people with decent toilets and 28 million people with good hygiene.
