International Ghanaian Model Victoria Michaels

Every day 4,000 children die from illnesses like diarrhea, dysentery, and cholera caused by dirty water and unhygienic living conditions. We can’t fight malnutrition without tackling the diseases that contribute to it. As part of our integrated approach to hunger, we’re getting safe water, sanitation, and hygiene services to communities in need all over the world.

 During emergencies, we truck water into affected areas and installs storage tanks and reservoirs. Where water is scarce or unsafe, we drill and decontaminate wells, install hand-pumps, protect natural springs, tap aquifers, rehabilitate damaged infrastructure, and pipe water into hard-to-reach villages and health centers.

 To prevent outbreaks of disease during a crisis, our teams distribute hygiene kits and build latrines and hand-washing stations. In communities at risk, we construct water filters made from basic materials and teach healthy practices like hand-washing, cooking with clean utensils, and drawing water from protected sources.

 Our commitment to community participation ensures long-term capacity: we train community-based water committees to manage their water and sanitation infrastructure themselves, and organize village health teams to model good sanitation and hygiene practices for their communities long after we leave an area.

• 4,000 children under the age of five die every day from preventable water-related diseases.
• One in eight people lacks access to enough clean water to meet their basic needs.
• More than half of the hospital beds in developing countries are taken by people suffering from diarrheal diseases.
• Half of girls who stop attending primary school in Africa do so because of the lack of safe and private toilets.