Water For People
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| File:WFPLogo.jpg | |
| Company type | Nonprofit Organization |
|---|---|
| Industry | Drinking Water and Sanitation |
| Founded | 1991 |
| Headquarters | Denver, Colorado United States |
Key people | Ned Breslin Chief Executive Officer |
| Revenue | 21,765,130 United States dollar (2017)  |
| Website | www.waterforpeople.org |
Water For People, founded in 1991 by the American Water Works Association (AWWA), is a nonprofit international development organization, which helps people in developing countries improve their quality of life by supporting the development of locally sustainable drinking water resources, sanitation facilities and health and hygiene education programs. Water For People believes that access to safe drinking water and effective sanitation are basic human rights.
According to UNICEF, more than 1.1 billion people worldwide don't have access to safe drinking water. Another 2.6 billion lack adequate sanitation. The result is devastating. Every day, 5,000 people who share our planet die from water-related illnesses, nearly 2 million each year. Epidemics of cholera, dysentery, and hepatitis are common in the developing world, preventable diseases that can be traced directly to inadequate water and/or sanitation. And children are disproportionately affected.[1]
Water For People's goal is to provide access to safe drinking water and sanitation, and reduce or eliminate water- or sanitation-related disease. The primary method to achieve this goal is to use local resources and work with the community to solve the drinking water, sanitation and hygiene problems. Local communities must be the driving force for the programs last and be sustainable.
Water For People has established a year-round presence in seven developing countries, including Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Malawi, Nicaragua, and Rwanda. And will be expanding into the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Peru, and Uganda.
Water For People partners with local governments, the private sector, and other trusted nongovernmental organizations to support their work.
Volunteer
Water For People depends on volunteers to fulfill much of its mission. Volunteers raise funds and spread the word about the desperate need for safe drinking water and improved sanitation in the developing world.
The World Water Corps is Water For People’s volunteer program that sends engineers to the countries where the sanitation projects are being established. This allows the volunteers to use their skills and experience in support of the development of sustainable safe drinking water resources, improved sanitation facilities, and hygiene education programs.
World Water Corps volunteers provide professional support to Water For People’s work overseas within the parameters of its successful community-based model. As such, they are not involved with the actual design and construction of water and sanitation systems. These functions are left to local government and nongovernmental organization partners, as well as community members themselves, who must take ownership of these systems and understand how to operate and maintain them for the long term.
Instead, World Water Corps volunteers engage in such activities as mapping to provide baseline data for development, monitoring the functionality of past projects, and evaluating overall program effectiveness. Volunteers have conducted scoping studies and needs assessments to determine where Water For People should expand. They might also be called upon to “train the trainers” abroad or provide technical assistance to partners.[2]
References
- ^ "Water For People is AWWA's Charity of Choice - About". AWWA. 2007-08-09. Retrieved 2009-10-13.
- ^ "Get Involved - Volunteer". Water for People. Retrieved 2009-10-13.