Worldwide,
it is estimated that on a single day women can spend over 200 billion
collective hours fetching water. 1 in 10 girls drop out of school or miss one
week per month when they start menstruating because of the lack of toilets.
Additionally, women are responsible for the health of the household often
adding financial stress when a family member falls ill if she must miss out on
any income-generating opportunities not to mention having to buy medicines or
pay for health services.
Because
they are often in charge of procuring water for their families and communities,
women have a much deeper relationship to this essential resource. Yet in many
places around the world their knowledge and hard work is ignored when it comes
to community decision-making around the provision of clean water and sanitation
strategies. Women know the locations of all the available and seasonal water
sources as well as which water sources are safest. Also, because they have more
interaction with water than others, making sure they have access to information
about proper hygiene practices, and the ability to implement them, is crucial
to promoting family health. If a mother is cooking, cleaning and providing
drinking water and not practicing good hygiene, the whole family is at risk.
The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) recognizes that the “exclusion
of women from the planning of water supply and sanitation schemes is a major
cause of their high rate of failure.”
The
Global Women’s Water Initiative was launched collaboratively in 2007 by three
international organizations with shared goals and values: A Single Drop,
Crabgrass and Women’s Earth Alliance. Since its launch, GWWI has facilitated 3
year-long training programs for 45 two-person teams of African women grassroots
leaders, providing over $55,000 in seed funding for water and sanitation
projects in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, Liberia,
and Cameroon. The teams are selected through a rigorous application process;
the selected duos are all respected leaders who have a proven track record in
implementing programs in their local communities. GWWI has also built
partnerships with strong regional organizations, including GROOTS Kenya, the
Greenbelt Movement, ProNet Accra (Water Aid affiliate), and Women’s and Young
People’s Leadership Academy (iCON) who have acted as our local hosts,
coordinated local logistics and facilitated skill-building workshops. In
addition to African women trainers and participants, Women and Water Trainings
also include international women development practitioners and academics who
participate as Fellows, providing post-training support to the African
participants who are implementing water projects in their communities.
Teen Reporters interviewed Gemma Bulous.
Gemma Bulos is
a multi award-winning Social Entrepreneur and Director of the Global
Women’s Water Initiative. Prior to co-founding GWWI, Gemma was the Founding
Director of A Single Drop for Safe Water in the Philippines, creating
income-generating community-led water service organizations. For this
innovation, Gemma received national and international social
entrepreneur awards including Echoing Green, Ernst Young and Schwab
Foundation. Her programs also won accolades including the Tech Museum Tech
Equality Award and Warriors of the UN Millennium Goals, sponsored by Kodak
Philippines. In 2011, she was recognized as one of the Most Influential Thought
Leaders and Innovative Filipinas in the United States by Filipina Women's
Network. She has presented alongside such dignitaries such as Jane Goodall,
Vandana Shiva, Wangari Maathai at events such as the World Economic Forum, UN
Water for Life Conference and others. Gemma is also the recipient of the CG
Vibes Award from Queen Latifah and CoverGirl for “Women Changing the
World Through Music” for building the Million Voice Choir global peace movement
to raise awareness of the global water crisis.
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