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Duwancho
200 people
Project Completed
August 31, 2019
“Water means change, not only in the way we live, but also the way we think.” - Genet
Duwancho, Ethiopia, Africa
- Story
- Plan
- FAQ's
Clean Water, New Life: Genet’s Story
August 2020
“Water means change,” Genet said. “Not only in the way we live, but also the way we think.”
“The more time you have, the more you have time to develop better ideas to improve your life,” she added.
Genet lives in Duwancho village with her husband and five children. Before they began working with Lifewater, they relied on water from a faraway spring that made her children sick. Genet said, “Clean water was like a dream, impossible to touch.”
Today, life is transformed. What she once thought impossible has come true. Genet, her family, and all of Duwancho village have a safe water well in their community. Genet’s family is healthy.
“My morale has been boosted with clean water,” Genet said. “I have a determination to make my dreams come true.”
Her husband, Shallamo, said, “We’re able to cover our living expenses properly and save the rest!”
With time saved gathering water and money saved on healthcare costs, the family expects a large harvest on their coffee farm this year. Genet and Shallamo are saving money to send the children to college. Genet has even found time to volunteer at her local church serving community members who are disabled, elderly, or in need in some way.
Safe water also means clean clothes for Genet’s children.
One of their daughters, Shalale, said, “Every student in my school used to come with dirty and unclean uniforms because it wasn’t easy to get water to wash regularly, but now we can clean our uniforms and ourselves at any time we want.”
Safe water is bringing hope, health, and the confidence to thrive to families in Duwancho village.
With safe water and sanitation practices, families like Genet’s are transformed. You can be a part of a transformation story. Sponsor a water project today, and follow along to see your impact.
Life in Duwancho: Genet’s Story
Genet Gayo’s five children are her everything. They are her and her husband’s promise for the future, but she is worried that unsafe water will keep them from reaching their dreams.
In Duwancho village, Genet, her husband, Shallamo, and their five children gather water from a contaminated spring a short walk from their home. Genet’s daughters fill their containers three times a day.
However, the spring dries up each year when the rains stop, and Genet’s family must walk in search of water in other villages. It often takes them two hours both ways to fill their containers once.
At the time we met Genet, she was recovering from typhoid, a water-related disease that can be fatal if left untreated. She recalled her recent visit to the hospital.
“I got sick and went to Daye Hospital for treatment…. I paid 500 ETB ($18 USD) in addition to motorbike transportation,” she said. “When I saw the crowded hospital, it was surprising that all those people were sick in one day.”
For a family living in extreme poverty, $18 is weeks worth of income, income that could be used to invest in their crops and their children’s educations.
With safe water, Genet said, “I hope to plant more coffee seedlings, get more harvest, and send our children to a better school.”
She went on to say, “For me, getting safe water in the village is everything because we can live long without food, but it is so difficult to live long without water.”
You can help Genet’s family and others in Duwancho today. Your gift will provide health training for each household, plus a new, safe water source near their village.
Duwancho is in a very remote region of Ethiopia
View Interactive Map
This village is on its way to becoming a Healthy Village. The process takes approximately 24 months from start to finish. You can follow along with the progress below.
Here’s the Plan for Duwancho:
Project Ready
Villages are carefully selected by Lifewater staff and wait for program work to begin in their area.
CLTS
In Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS), each village goes through exercises that reveal how their current practices are making them sick, such as identifying all the places where feces are contaminating their environment. This important step equips communities to be knowledgeable about their health and willing to make changes.
Healthy Homes Registered
A home is certified healthy when a family has adopted five healthy habits: washing hands with soap and water, storing and using water safely, building and using a bathroom with a roof and door, using a drying rack to keep dishes off the ground, and keeping the area around the home safe and clean.
ODF
When each household builds and uses their own functioning restroom, a community earns an “Open Defecation Free” (ODF) certification. Each country has their own processes and celebration for ODF villages, and it’s a huge accomplishment towards improved health for everyone.
Water Committee Selected
Duwancho has selected water committee members to manage the safe village water source. Forming a water committee is a key step toward establishing a safe water source in a village. Committees are made up of local men and women who manage the well and collect fees, ensuring the community’s investment lasts for generations to come.
Construction Started
Work is officially underway to build a new water source for Duwancho village. Our local teams are using technology appropriate to the region and geography to ensure the new water source is sustainable.
Village Has Safe Water Source
The new safe water source is now complete!
Clean, safe water transforms a village. Everyone gathers to celebrate, thanking God for the miracle in their community.
Healthy Village
Great news! Duwancho is now a certified Healthy Village. That means the safe water source is complete and more than 90% of the community’s homes are healthy. That is a new future for 200 children and families.
Water Project FAQs
When you sponsor a water project, you are helping bring lasting change. Your gift provides:
- House-to-house hygiene and sanitation education
- Custom engineered water source
- Construction of a safe water source
- Community engagement by Lifewater field staff to ensure change lasts
Lifewater also provides:
- Monitoring and evaluation of the project with real-time updates to donors
- Local church partnerships that equip the church to be the hands and feet of Jesus
- Five-year water source maintenance and sustainability (funded by beneficiary communities on a volunteer basis)
Yes! The village you are helping is a real village. All families photographed or shared from the project page have given their permission to have their information shared with you.
Lifewater has local staff that live and serve among the communities and schools where Lifewater works. Our staff know the language and the culture and are best equipped to serve communities. Because we seek to ensure sustainable water projects and community buy in, we do not allow donors to visit the projects they sponsor. However, we do commit to sending real-time updates, photos, and stories from the projects themselves.
With more than 40 years’ experience, LIfewater is the longest-running Christian clean water charity in North America. Over those 40 years, Lifewater has worked in more than 45 different countries. Currently, our work is focused in Sub-Saharan Africa (Ethiopia, Uganda, and Tanzania) and Southeast Asia (Cambodia).
Lifewater identifies countries and regions that are unreached and underserved with basic water access and sanitation, which means we focus on areas where other organizations are not serving.
Although great strides have been made in the past 20 years to solve the global water crisis, remote and rural populations still remain unreached with adequate water and sanitation. These distant regions are difficult and often costly for governments and NGOs to serve well. Many of these communities feel as though they have been forgotten.
Currently, Lifewater has programs in Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, and Cambodia. You can go to lifewater.org/projects to select a specific water project to help. Because our programs are regionalized and made in partnership with the local governments, we are not able to take requests for specific water projects outside of our existing programs.
Lifewater budgets 80% of expenditures for programs. The remaining 20% is split between administrative/management and fundraising expenses. This ratio is best in class for nonprofits and is why Lifewater has received the highest rating from Charity Navigator.
Administrative/management expenses are used to ensure that we are effective in managing the funds entrusted to us and include the following types of expenses: accounting personnel, leadership time, professional development of staff, external auditors, legal counsel, government registration expenses in every U.S. state, credit card fees for processing donations, bank fees, database maintenance, and office expenses.
Fundraising expenses generate the income needed to do the work that we set out to do. These include the cost of direct mail appeals and communication, marketing projects, donor relations personnel, and email communication systems. Last year, every dollar invested into Lifewater fundraising efforts resulted in $10 of donation for the organization.
Over our 40 year history, Lifewater has received the highest accreditations from the most respected rating organization in the industry. Lifewater is recognized as one of the top-rated charities in the United States by independent reporting organizations, including:
- Charity Navigator (four stars)
- Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA)
- Guidestar (Platinum)
- Great Nonprofits (five star)
- Excellence in Giving
Learn more at https://lifewater.org/top-rated-charity.
Lifewater’s work is founded on the belief that every person is made in the image of God. It is with this conviction that we seek out the globe’s most unreached, marginalized people groups in need of safe water.
Both nationally and internationally, 100 percent of our staff are Christians. These Christian staff help facilitate Lifewater’s Healthy Church strategy in communities. And, where there are no churches, we work with church planting partners to start new churches.
To create Healthy Churches, Lifewater first trains church leaders in foundational theology. These leaders are equipped with the basic story of the Christian faith and the biblical mandate to love others. Leaders learn that stopping the spread of disease and caring for the vulnerable aligns with our responsibility as Christians to love our neighbor.
Second, Lifewater ensures churches have safe bathrooms on their premises, handwashing stations, clean water nearby, and the education to promote health within their congregations. It’s imperative that churches are early adopters of healthy hygiene practices.
Third, Lifewater encourages churches to help vulnerable households become Healthy Homes. Church leaders undergo a training to become WASH (water access, sanitation, and hygiene) advocates in their communities. These advocates are encouraged to identify widows, child-headed households, the elderly, and the disabled to help them meet the health standards of Lifewater’s programs.
Lifewater’s Vision of a Healthy Village strategy is a relationship-first method. This model transforms entire regions house by house, village by village, and school by school. It is among the most intensive household-level work happening in the entire developing world and is closely tracked for progress, sustainability, and overall impact.
We construct custom-engineered safe water sources and teach life-saving health and sanitation practices in local villages and schools in need.
“We are confident Lifewater’s work will have life-sustaining impact.”
– Cary A. Paine, The Stewardship Foundation
Story
Clean Water, New Life: Genet’s Story
August 2020
“Water means change,” Genet said. “Not only in the way we live, but also the way we think.”
“The more time you have, the more you have time to develop better ideas to improve your life,” she added.
Genet lives in Duwancho village with her husband and five children. Before they began working with Lifewater, they relied on water from a faraway spring that made her children sick. Genet said, “Clean water was like a dream, impossible to touch.”
Today, life is transformed. What she once thought impossible has come true. Genet, her family, and all of Duwancho village have a safe water well in their community. Genet’s family is healthy.
“My morale has been boosted with clean water,” Genet said. “I have a determination to make my dreams come true.”
Her husband, Shallamo, said, “We’re able to cover our living expenses properly and save the rest!”
With time saved gathering water and money saved on healthcare costs, the family expects a large harvest on their coffee farm this year. Genet and Shallamo are saving money to send the children to college. Genet has even found time to volunteer at her local church serving community members who are disabled, elderly, or in need in some way.
Safe water also means clean clothes for Genet’s children.
One of their daughters, Shalale, said, “Every student in my school used to come with dirty and unclean uniforms because it wasn’t easy to get water to wash regularly, but now we can clean our uniforms and ourselves at any time we want.”
Safe water is bringing hope, health, and the confidence to thrive to families in Duwancho village.
With safe water and sanitation practices, families like Genet’s are transformed. You can be a part of a transformation story. Sponsor a water project today, and follow along to see your impact.
Life in Duwancho: Genet’s Story
Genet Gayo’s five children are her everything. They are her and her husband’s promise for the future, but she is worried that unsafe water will keep them from reaching their dreams.
In Duwancho village, Genet, her husband, Shallamo, and their five children gather water from a contaminated spring a short walk from their home. Genet’s daughters fill their containers three times a day.
However, the spring dries up each year when the rains stop, and Genet’s family must walk in search of water in other villages. It often takes them two hours both ways to fill their containers once.
At the time we met Genet, she was recovering from typhoid, a water-related disease that can be fatal if left untreated. She recalled her recent visit to the hospital.
“I got sick and went to Daye Hospital for treatment…. I paid 500 ETB ($18 USD) in addition to motorbike transportation,” she said. “When I saw the crowded hospital, it was surprising that all those people were sick in one day.”
For a family living in extreme poverty, $18 is weeks worth of income, income that could be used to invest in their crops and their children’s educations.
With safe water, Genet said, “I hope to plant more coffee seedlings, get more harvest, and send our children to a better school.”
She went on to say, “For me, getting safe water in the village is everything because we can live long without food, but it is so difficult to live long without water.”
You can help Genet’s family and others in Duwancho today. Your gift will provide health training for each household, plus a new, safe water source near their village.
Plan
Duwancho is in a very remote region of Ethiopia
View Interactive Map
This village is on its way to becoming a Healthy Village. The process takes approximately 24 months from start to finish. You can follow along with the progress below.
Here’s the Plan for Duwancho:
Project Ready
Villages are carefully selected by Lifewater staff and wait for program work to begin in their area.
CLTS
In Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS), each village goes through exercises that reveal how their current practices are making them sick, such as identifying all the places where feces are contaminating their environment. This important step equips communities to be knowledgeable about their health and willing to make changes.
Healthy Homes Registered
A home is certified healthy when a family has adopted five healthy habits: washing hands with soap and water, storing and using water safely, building and using a bathroom with a roof and door, using a drying rack to keep dishes off the ground, and keeping the area around the home safe and clean.
ODF
When each household builds and uses their own functioning restroom, a community earns an “Open Defecation Free” (ODF) certification. Each country has their own processes and celebration for ODF villages, and it’s a huge accomplishment towards improved health for everyone.
Water Committee Selected
Duwancho has selected water committee members to manage the safe village water source. Forming a water committee is a key step toward establishing a safe water source in a village. Committees are made up of local men and women who manage the well and collect fees, ensuring the community’s investment lasts for generations to come.
Construction Started
Work is officially underway to build a new water source for Duwancho village. Our local teams are using technology appropriate to the region and geography to ensure the new water source is sustainable.
Village Has Safe Water Source
The new safe water source is now complete!
Clean, safe water transforms a village. Everyone gathers to celebrate, thanking God for the miracle in their community.
Healthy Village
Great news! Duwancho is now a certified Healthy Village. That means the safe water source is complete and more than 90% of the community’s homes are healthy. That is a new future for 200 children and families.
FAQ's
Water Project FAQs
When you sponsor a water project, you are helping bring lasting change. Your gift provides:
- House-to-house hygiene and sanitation education
- Custom engineered water source
- Construction of a safe water source
- Community engagement by Lifewater field staff to ensure change lasts
Lifewater also provides:
- Monitoring and evaluation of the project with real-time updates to donors
- Local church partnerships that equip the church to be the hands and feet of Jesus
- Five-year water source maintenance and sustainability (funded by beneficiary communities on a volunteer basis)
Yes! The village you are helping is a real village. All families photographed or shared from the project page have given their permission to have their information shared with you.
Lifewater has local staff that live and serve among the communities and schools where Lifewater works. Our staff know the language and the culture and are best equipped to serve communities. Because we seek to ensure sustainable water projects and community buy in, we do not allow donors to visit the projects they sponsor. However, we do commit to sending real-time updates, photos, and stories from the projects themselves.
With more than 40 years’ experience, LIfewater is the longest-running Christian clean water charity in North America. Over those 40 years, Lifewater has worked in more than 45 different countries. Currently, our work is focused in Sub-Saharan Africa (Ethiopia, Uganda, and Tanzania) and Southeast Asia (Cambodia).
Lifewater identifies countries and regions that are unreached and underserved with basic water access and sanitation, which means we focus on areas where other organizations are not serving.
Although great strides have been made in the past 20 years to solve the global water crisis, remote and rural populations still remain unreached with adequate water and sanitation. These distant regions are difficult and often costly for governments and NGOs to serve well. Many of these communities feel as though they have been forgotten.
Currently, Lifewater has programs in Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, and Cambodia. You can go to lifewater.org/projects to select a specific water project to help. Because our programs are regionalized and made in partnership with the local governments, we are not able to take requests for specific water projects outside of our existing programs.
Lifewater budgets 80% of expenditures for programs. The remaining 20% is split between administrative/management and fundraising expenses. This ratio is best in class for nonprofits and is why Lifewater has received the highest rating from Charity Navigator.
Administrative/management expenses are used to ensure that we are effective in managing the funds entrusted to us and include the following types of expenses: accounting personnel, leadership time, professional development of staff, external auditors, legal counsel, government registration expenses in every U.S. state, credit card fees for processing donations, bank fees, database maintenance, and office expenses.
Fundraising expenses generate the income needed to do the work that we set out to do. These include the cost of direct mail appeals and communication, marketing projects, donor relations personnel, and email communication systems. Last year, every dollar invested into Lifewater fundraising efforts resulted in $10 of donation for the organization.
Over our 40 year history, Lifewater has received the highest accreditations from the most respected rating organization in the industry. Lifewater is recognized as one of the top-rated charities in the United States by independent reporting organizations, including:
- Charity Navigator (four stars)
- Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA)
- Guidestar (Platinum)
- Great Nonprofits (five star)
- Excellence in Giving
Learn more at https://lifewater.org/top-rated-charity.
Lifewater’s work is founded on the belief that every person is made in the image of God. It is with this conviction that we seek out the globe’s most unreached, marginalized people groups in need of safe water.
Both nationally and internationally, 100 percent of our staff are Christians. These Christian staff help facilitate Lifewater’s Healthy Church strategy in communities. And, where there are no churches, we work with church planting partners to start new churches.
To create Healthy Churches, Lifewater first trains church leaders in foundational theology. These leaders are equipped with the basic story of the Christian faith and the biblical mandate to love others. Leaders learn that stopping the spread of disease and caring for the vulnerable aligns with our responsibility as Christians to love our neighbor.
Second, Lifewater ensures churches have safe bathrooms on their premises, handwashing stations, clean water nearby, and the education to promote health within their congregations. It’s imperative that churches are early adopters of healthy hygiene practices.
Third, Lifewater encourages churches to help vulnerable households become Healthy Homes. Church leaders undergo a training to become WASH (water access, sanitation, and hygiene) advocates in their communities. These advocates are encouraged to identify widows, child-headed households, the elderly, and the disabled to help them meet the health standards of Lifewater’s programs.
Lifewater’s Vision of a Healthy Village strategy is a relationship-first method. This model transforms entire regions house by house, village by village, and school by school. It is among the most intensive household-level work happening in the entire developing world and is closely tracked for progress, sustainability, and overall impact.
We construct custom-engineered safe water sources and teach life-saving health and sanitation practices in local villages and schools in need.
Your gift reflects your trust in Lifewater International. We commit to honor your generosity by using your gift to help further the mission and vision of Lifewater International. Your donation is used by Lifewater International according to the project objectives to provide safe drinking water and improved sanitation and hygiene within the specified program area. Lifewater International is a charitable organization as described in 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, registered in the United States. All donations are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law.
Donations are non-refundable. Lifewater International will honor a donor’s request for any pre-approved program or project whenever possible. In rare occasions where this is not possible, gifts will be used where needed, in accordance with the organization’s charitable purpose. In accordance with this policy, donor’s explicitly release Lifewater International from further restriction on such funds.
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