Malawi: clean water for better health and education

The lack of clean drinking water in Malawi is a huge problem. A third of the population has no direct access to clean drinking water or sanitary facilities, so many children fall ill, preventing them from going to school. Or they end up missing classes because they have to walk several kilometres to fetch water.

We are constructing 20 wells and sanitation facilities in the vicinity of educational centres in 20 communities, benefitting 17,000 people, so that children and their families have direct access to safe drinking water. Through our project, we are also ensuring that 8,000 girls and boys receive day-care.

Your sponsorship makes a difference! Your sponsorship helps finance the construction of drinking water wells. With your support, we enable children and their families to have immediate access to clean drinking water. Together, we can protect children from preventable diseases and provide them with education for a better future.

Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world. Around 70 percent of the East African country's population lives below the poverty line of 1.56 euros per day. In rural areas, especially, so much is lacking. The lack of clean drinking water and sanitary facilities has far-reaching consequences, above all for children, who often contract dysentery, cholera or other diarrhoeal diseases as a result of unsafe water points, a lack of toilets and poor sewage disposal. Thousands of children each year die from these preventable infections. The situation deteriorated further during the corona pandemic.

For anyone living in extreme poverty, education can often be of secondary importance. Yet, education is often the only way to escape the spiral of poverty. Official policy in Malawi stipulates that children and young people should attend school for a total of 12 years – which, in reality, rarely happens. Early childhood education is also neglected, although it is of vital importance and can enable children to go on to a better life, free of poverty. Many children receive little or no support or educational stimulation in their early years and, where they do, it comes from untrained teaching staff. Even later, the only education on offer is often inadequate, in poorly equipped schools.

In many places, unsafe water and a lack of sanitary facilities are directly related to a lack of education. This is because children with stomachaches caused by drinking unsafe water cannot concentrate in class or, even, go to school because they are sick. Some parents are also reluctant to send their children to school, afraid that the poor hygiene conditions will make them ill. The water sources, themselves, are also problematic: they are not only far away but often unsafe: in these communities, children usually have the job of fetching water. Even before the school day starts, they have to walk several kilometres to and from the wells, waterholes or rivers. And when they do, finally, get to school, they are exhausted. For many girls, one other problem is that schools frequently lack toilets that provide appropriate conditions that allow them to change their sanitary pads during their menstrual period.

We ensure that communities and schools have clean water! Through our project in M'mbelwa, in Northern Malawi, we are supporting 20 communities and 20 state-run schools by providing local access to clean water and toilet facilities. The target group consists of 17,000 people, including 8,000 children, predominantly from families living below the poverty line. The project area also has a dearth of sanitary facilities – circumstances we want to change with the help of your donation.

We support the construction of wells and latrines at 20 schools in the region to enable children to have access to clean drinking water at all times, to remain healthy and concentrate on their schooling. We are also setting up “WASH Clubs” (WASH: Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) in schools to provide information, raise awareness and ensure suitable hygiene measures are in place.
Mothers meet in groups to learn how to make durable, washable sanitary pads made from locally sourced materials. They then distribute them to girls attending the 20 schools in our project region, to ensure that the girls no longer have to miss classes.

In an all-embracing approach, we also support child development at community level by expanding childcare and child protection. The quality of early childhood education is enhanced through improved teacher training and raising their awareness of the importance of early childhood education. We are setting up a total of 20 “children’s corners”, which, in the afternoons, provide after school day-care for children between the ages of 6 and 13. The children have access to a mixture of leisure activities and receive educational support in the form of homework supervision. We train the educators required, to ensure the children receive appropriate, quality care.