KWAHO - Kenya Water for Health Organisation

Accessible water improves women's lives

Original location: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12345286&dopt=Abstract

PIP: Margaret Mwangola has helped Kenyan women to have clean, accessible water, better health and sanitation, and an improved quality of life. Ms. Mwangola is executive director of Kenya Water for Health Organization (KWAHO), an nongovernmental organization (NGO) she founded in 1976 to address international concerns about the long distances rural women walk daily to get water. KWAHO has supported more than 130 community water and sanitation projects, such as wells and irrigation trenches, that have benefited over 750,000 people. Ms. Mwangola was honored recently by the US-based National Council for International Health for her work with women. In accepting the award, she credited the Center for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA) training with enabling her to take on the challenge of bringing water to Kenya's villages. After attending the Women in Management (WIM) workshop in 1982, she obtained NGO registration for KWAHO and built it into an internationally respected women's and environmental organization. Community empowerment is the strategy of KWAHO's community management methodology. Water point communities of KWAHO projects have complete responsibility for their water projects. Community leaders and members are trained to operate, maintain, and manage the projects. Besides bringing water to communities, KWAHO has brought on a changed way of life. Women have taken on nontraditional responsibilities such as maintaining water pumps and hiring men for construction jobs. They have used their newly freed time for agriculture, handicrafts, and tailoring. Income from these activities supports the water projects. KWAHO's latest initiatives include water projects in urban slum areas and involving more women in managing water projects.

PMID: 12345286 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE], CEDPA Netw. 1993 Oct;:7.