Safe water, sanitation and hygiene are the building blocks of community development, the basic ingredients that help all other changes to happen. Since 2004, we have reached over 1,019 communities and 191,000 people in rural Zambia. In the areas we work, only half the population has access to safe water and just 1 in 3 people has a safe place to go the toilet.

Just providing safe water is not enough to reduce water borne diseases, so we also support hygiene education and sanitation training. Communities build their own simple sanitation facilities, including pit latrines with tippy taps for hand-washing, before a new water-point is installed. We train everyone to look after the new water-point to avoid break downs.

Time and again the people we work with tell us how their children can concentrate on school, how they are not going to the health centre anymore and how the knowledge they have gained has allowed them to take positive action to change their lives. And, we can prove it. In 2015-2017, diarrhoea dropped by 83% and girls’ absenteeism from primary school dropped by 84%.