Waita Wabomba

261 people

Project Completed

“We are grateful that our prayers have been answered.” - Hajarah

Waita Wabomba, Uganda, Africa

GPS: 0.4193, 33.5393
  • Story
  • Plan
  • FAQ's

 

Clean Water, New Life: Hajarah’s Story

 

For years, life in Waita Wabomba village was dangerous for women and girls. With the hot sun setting on them, evening walks to the swamp or the faraway well were often the only choice they had for drinking water.

Today, women and girls in Waita Wabomba village live without fear. Safe water is just steps from their homes!

Hajarah lives in Waita Wabomba with her husband and two young children. They own a small farm.

“Our child has returned to school, and our hope is that he will have a better life in the future now that we are healthy enough to work hard and pay tuition,” Hajarah said.

Hajarah is 19 years old. Because her community didn’t have safe water or basic sanitation and hygiene resources, she dropped out of school years ago. She wants better for her children.

“We are grateful that our prayers have been answered through your work,” she said. “May God richly bless you.”

Hajarah has many dreams for herself, so many that she hasn’t decided which path to choose.

“I would like to engage in business,” she said. “My plan now is to save enough money to build towards that, and it’s now possible with our increased productivity, reduced medical expenses to near zero that have combined to free a lot of our income to make saving possible.”

“The future is exciting,” she added.

With safe water and sanitation practices, families like Hajarah’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 Waita Wabomba: Shamira’s Story

March 2019

 

The path to the pond is surrounded by tall bushes and sugar plantations. By the time Shamira gets out of school and picks up her container to make the journey, the hot, Ugandan sun is burning over the horizon and night is settling in.

“There is fear that stalks us each time we go to the pond to fetch water,” she said, gesturing to her mother, who makes the journey in the morning.

Children and women have been attacked, and many have simply disappeared. There is a well near Waita Wabomba village, but it is so overcrowded, it’s not uncommon to wait in line all night.

“If you go to the well, be prepared to leave at 11 p.m. and beyond,” Shamira said. “How can one have dreams under such circumstances?”

Shamira’s mother and father are separated, leaving her mother to raise all seven children on her own. Shamira is the oldest child, and she is mature for her age and protective of her siblings.

“I would love to see my siblings successful,” she said, keeping a watchful eye over the youngest ones. “With water, that would be possible given the many opportunities it can create for us.”

Although she knows the great change that abundant, safe water will bring to her village, she battles hopelessness, doubting that her dream will actually come true.

“We hope to be safe if we get a well that is close to home,” she said. “We would go to school and return home without worrying about how we shall go for water.”

Shamira wants to become a nurse. Since Shamira was a child, her mother has created at-home remedies to help the community with water-related illness, and Shamira is inspired to help heal others.

You can help Shamira’s family and others in Waita Wabomba village today. Your gift will provide health training for each household, plus a new, safe water source near their village.

Sponsor Waita Wabomba village today.

Waita Wabomba is in a very remote region of Uganda

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 Waita Wabomba:

ready

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.

clts
healthy-homes-registered

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.

odf
wc_schoolmc_formed

Water Committee Selected

Waita Wabomba 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 Waita Wabomba village. Our local teams are using technology appropriate to the region and geography to ensure the new water source is sustainable.

construction_start
construction_complete

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! Waita Wabomba 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 261 children and families.

healthy_village_achieved

Water Project FAQs

What is included in the cost of a water project?

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)
Is this a real village? Am I impacting this actual village?

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.

Can I visit programs and/or my sponsored water project?

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.

Where does Lifewater work?

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).

Why these countries and regions?

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.

Can I request a water project in a specific country?

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.

What percent of funds go towards 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. 

Is Lifewater approved/vetted by 3rd party organizations?

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.

How does Lifewater integrate faith into its work?

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.

What is Lifewater’s process? What does the organization do, and how does it do it?

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.

Story

 

Clean Water, New Life: Hajarah’s Story

 

For years, life in Waita Wabomba village was dangerous for women and girls. With the hot sun setting on them, evening walks to the swamp or the faraway well were often the only choice they had for drinking water.

Today, women and girls in Waita Wabomba village live without fear. Safe water is just steps from their homes!

Hajarah lives in Waita Wabomba with her husband and two young children. They own a small farm.

“Our child has returned to school, and our hope is that he will have a better life in the future now that we are healthy enough to work hard and pay tuition,” Hajarah said.

Hajarah is 19 years old. Because her community didn’t have safe water or basic sanitation and hygiene resources, she dropped out of school years ago. She wants better for her children.

“We are grateful that our prayers have been answered through your work,” she said. “May God richly bless you.”

Hajarah has many dreams for herself, so many that she hasn’t decided which path to choose.

“I would like to engage in business,” she said. “My plan now is to save enough money to build towards that, and it’s now possible with our increased productivity, reduced medical expenses to near zero that have combined to free a lot of our income to make saving possible.”

“The future is exciting,” she added.

With safe water and sanitation practices, families like Hajarah’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 Waita Wabomba: Shamira’s Story

March 2019

 

The path to the pond is surrounded by tall bushes and sugar plantations. By the time Shamira gets out of school and picks up her container to make the journey, the hot, Ugandan sun is burning over the horizon and night is settling in.

“There is fear that stalks us each time we go to the pond to fetch water,” she said, gesturing to her mother, who makes the journey in the morning.

Children and women have been attacked, and many have simply disappeared. There is a well near Waita Wabomba village, but it is so overcrowded, it’s not uncommon to wait in line all night.

“If you go to the well, be prepared to leave at 11 p.m. and beyond,” Shamira said. “How can one have dreams under such circumstances?”

Shamira’s mother and father are separated, leaving her mother to raise all seven children on her own. Shamira is the oldest child, and she is mature for her age and protective of her siblings.

“I would love to see my siblings successful,” she said, keeping a watchful eye over the youngest ones. “With water, that would be possible given the many opportunities it can create for us.”

Although she knows the great change that abundant, safe water will bring to her village, she battles hopelessness, doubting that her dream will actually come true.

“We hope to be safe if we get a well that is close to home,” she said. “We would go to school and return home without worrying about how we shall go for water.”

Shamira wants to become a nurse. Since Shamira was a child, her mother has created at-home remedies to help the community with water-related illness, and Shamira is inspired to help heal others.

You can help Shamira’s family and others in Waita Wabomba village today. Your gift will provide health training for each household, plus a new, safe water source near their village.

Sponsor Waita Wabomba village today.

Plan

Waita Wabomba is in a very remote region of Uganda

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 Waita Wabomba:

ready

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.

clts
healthy-homes-registered

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.

odf
wc_schoolmc_formed

Water Committee Selected

Waita Wabomba 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 Waita Wabomba village. Our local teams are using technology appropriate to the region and geography to ensure the new water source is sustainable.

construction_start
construction_complete

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! Waita Wabomba 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 261 children and families.

healthy_village_achieved

FAQ's

Water Project FAQs

What is included in the cost of a water project?

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)
Is this a real village? Am I impacting this actual village?

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.

Can I visit programs and/or my sponsored water project?

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.

Where does Lifewater work?

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).

Why these countries and regions?

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.

Can I request a water project in a specific country?

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.

What percent of funds go towards 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. 

Is Lifewater approved/vetted by 3rd party organizations?

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.

How does Lifewater integrate faith into its work?

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.

What is Lifewater’s process? What does the organization do, and how does it do it?

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.