What’s so great about toilets?

A lack of water affects every aspect of a person’s life. 

The solution should too. 

For most girls in rural Uganda, poor water, hygiene, and sanitation affect not just their home life, but their schooling as well; with 1 in 4 girls failing to graduate from high school due to the lack of a safe toilet and water for washing. When menstruation occurs, many of these girls have no choice but to be absent; sometimes more than a week! 

Brendah’s testimony sheds light on the challenges faced by girls without proper facilities at these schools.

“As girls, we have no water to wash when we have our periods. This makes us go home immediately because we fear shame. It makes us miss what others are studying, and by the time we come back, others are far ahead. We also have a challenge of latrines. We share two toilets with teachers. This situation is too hard for us, no privacy.”

Enhancing Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) standards and infrastructure in rural Uganda holds profound economic benefits. It not only boosts female school attendance and decreases absenteeism, but also reduces healthcare expenses, contributing to overall economic development within communities. In a recent project area, attendance was increased by 40%, and absenteeism decreased by 48%, all because of access to water and toilets!

Acts for Water adopts a holistic approach, incorporating new Gravity Flow Systems, retrofits, and extensions to existing water systems. That clean water, paired with a comprehensive, community-led sanitation and hygiene training program, helps empower girls like Brendah to take control of their health and ensure clean, safe, and consistent water sources for multiple Ugandan villages.

Within the Masha Project (a WASH initiative in the Isingiro District or Uganda) area alone, Acts for Water provided 20,043 people with clean water and WASH training, and built 9 latrine blocks (45 pour-flush toilets) at schools. Within 12 months of project completion, the waterborne disease rate decreased from 28% to 11.16%!

This World Toilet Day, you can be a part of making this kind of impact in other communities. Thanks to a generous partnership with Pitt Meadows Plumbing, who have pledged to match donations up to $12,500, any gift you make by November 19, 2023, will be DOUBLED to help twice as many girls like Brendah stay in school! 

Your support can address the challenges faced by remote, rural, and impoverished areas, fostering economic growth and breaking the cycle of poverty associated with inadequate access to clean water and sanitation.

With your support, you become a crucial part of helping girls like Brendah and their villages thrive, permanently. 

A $24 donation today ensures the sustainability needed to provide one child in Uganda with clean, disease-free water and a safe toilet for life, restoring dignity in the process.