Our Work
WASHNETRWANDA focuses much on:
Research And Advocacy:
Research and advocacy establishes a basis & baselines for evidence-based actions. We believe that, research is a solid foundation for advocacy activities on WASH policy design, implementation and service delivery for the public. At WASHNET-RWANDA, Research, advocacy and service delivery focuses much on Water, Sanitation, Hygiene, Health, Nutrition, climate resilience and planning for emergency catastrophes that may need positive response of WASH actions.
Water:
Clean, fresh and safe water helps in getting the body rid of all kinds of toxins, whether they are created due to bodily reactions, obtained from outside sources or ones that occur because of the consumption of contaminated water. When it comes to agriculture and food production, water is an essential ingredient. In Rwanda, only 57 per cent of the population access safe drinking water that is within 30 minutes of their home and 80% of Rwanda agriculture still relies on rainfall and climate change induced water insecurity generally at high level in Rwanda.
When children spend time collecting water, it often keeps them out of school. This is an issue especially for girls, who are often expected to take on the majority of household tasks. Even if water is available near the home, that water is often not safe to drink. When children drink contaminated water, they risk severe illness – and even death – from water-borne diseases.
Sanitation:
Sanitation is one of the most important aspects of community well-being because it protects human health, extends life spans, and is documented to provide benefits to the economy. Sanitation (e.g. toilets, latrines, mechanized wastewater treatment) is currently deployed as a way to contain and/or treat human excreta (and in some cases grey water) to protect human health and the environment. “Improved” (now referred to as “basic” since 2015) access to sanitation is one that separates “human excreta from human contact” in a hygienic manner (e.g. flush toilet, ventilated improved pit latrine (VIP), piped sewer systems, composting toilets, and septic systems) (WHO/UNICEF JMP, 2017).
One key goal of sanitation is to safely reduce/stop human exposure to pathogens. Pathogens are excreted by infected individuals and if not properly contained or treated, may present a risk to humans who come in contact with them. These individuals can also be exposed to pathogens through drinking water or eating food contaminated with pathogens found in human excreta. Similarly, safely managed drinking water must be free from faucal contamination (WHO, 2017. Basic sanitation means that every household has its own toilet and does not share with another household. These toilets should also keep human waste out of contact with people.
Hygiene:
Lack of hygiene and access to water plays an important role in trachoma transmission one of the diseases caused by poor hygiene practices. Musca sorbens flies act as mechanical vectors of the trachoma. It has been estimated that Musca sorbens flies that breed in scattered human faeces account for over 70% of trachoma incidence (Emerson et al., 2004; Montgomery & Bartram, 2010). Inadequate personal hygiene, which is often predicated on the lack of enough water, leads to child-to-child transmission of trachoma as well as attracting the trachoma-carrying flies to unclean faces. However, facial cleanliness can lead to lower levels of trachoma.
Just 5 per cent of households in Rwanda have a place for family members to wash their hands with soap. Hand washing with soap at critical moments is essential for good health, especially in children. Hand washing with soap removes germs from hands. This helps prevent infections because: People frequently touch their eyes, nose, and mouth without even realizing it. … Removing germs through hand washing therefore helps prevent diarrheal and respiratory infections and may even help prevent skin and eye infections; it also prevents the spread of deadly viruses like Corona virus which is currently affecting the world at large. WASHNET-RWANDA at ensuring that more households and communities use safe and sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene services.
Health:
The majority of reported cholera or Ebola cases and deaths occur in Africa. There is good evidence that poor WASH services contributes to the majority of the burden of diarrhoeal and related adverse health effects, and strong consensus around this point. There is suggestive evidence that hygiene substantially reduces diarrhoeal diseases in the community, there is suggestive evidence that sanitation and household water treatment can reduce diarrhoeal, and there is suggestive evidence that increasing water quantity directly reduces the risk of diarrhoeal and other WASH related diseases. This is where WASHNET-RWANDA steps in trying to reduce the number of people getting diseases caused by poor WASH services and facilities.
Nutrition:
Inadequate food hygiene practices can lead to high levels of microbial contamination of food, and interventions focusing on critical control points may reduce this contamination. While we need to better understand how to change behaviour sustainably through such interventions, and to assess their impacts on people’s health, there is growing consensus on the importance of integrating food hygiene components into both WASH and nutrition programmes .It has been estimated that environmental factors, including no access to water and sanitation and poor hygiene practices, may account for half of all under nutrition (Blossner & de Onis, 2005; Victora & Fall, 2008; World Bank, 2008).
Climate resilience:
WASHNET-RWANDA is committed to climate resilience by integrating climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies into its programs in contexts where climate change and disasters is a significant driver of poor agriculture performance, diseases, poverty and suffering. Vulnerability to disaster and climate change matters to WASHNET-RWANDA because it perpetuates and deepens the poverty and suffering It stands in the way of people – particularly women – being able to enjoy their basic WASH rights and reduces their chances of ever being able to attain them. Climate change undermines livelihoods through gradual, insidious changes in temperature and rainfall patterns, and increasing the frequency and/or intensity of hazards such as floods and droughts which hinder agriculture best performance. On a global scale, disasters are increasing in both frequency and impact.
Population growth, aging WASH infrastructure in some parts of Rwanda, and water scarcity that are all exacerbated by climate change in some locations, present challenges to achieve the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 (Targets 6.1 and 6.2) to provide access to safe water and sanitation for all by 2030. Rwanda WASH sector is already affected in many different ways by weather and climate events (such as variability, seasonality and extreme dry spells). This translates into negative impacts on water availability and quality, and also in negative performance of Agriculture, sanitation and hygiene service infrastructure.
WASH Capacity building:
Over the past 5 years, WASHNETRWANDA has exclusively focused on building the capacity of the WASH sector. We have seen first-hand the direct and immediate impact of providing WASH capacity-building services to our WASH member organizations in Rwanda. We have also seen a wide-spread multiplier effect of this strategy, many people have been trained by other organizations using our education and training guidance.
Capacity development is a powerful tool to enable entrepreneurship – in the sense of taking initiative to respond to our WASH needs and conditions. Providing practical knowledge and skills that project implementers and decision-makers can apply immediately increases WASH project quality and sustainability by developing the ability, confidence and motivation of practitioners to start, strengthen and grow projects. Such practical knowledge and skills can range from basic technical skills in point-of-use water treatment approaches and technologies, to hand pump repair, as well as softer skills such as building effective facilitation skills and WASH education program development. When knowledge and skills reside locally, people take action in innovative ways and train and mentor others.
WASH EMEGENCY PREPAREDNESS & ACTIONS:
The purpose of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) promotion activities in emergencies is to reduce public health risks. After emergencies people are often traumatised, hungry, dehydrated and exhausted, and, therefore, they are more vulnerable to diseases such as diarrhoea and cholera. WASHNET-RWANDA recognises the need to plan for WASH emergency interventions to respond as appropriate as possible. WASH activities reduce exposure to diseases by providing clean water, an environment free from faecal contamination and the knowledge and practice on hygiene behaviour. A large emphasis is put on enabling communities in Rwanda to promote safe practices in a way that is most appropriate to their context and circumstances. Rwanda has experienced and will still experience disastrous floods which have claimed many lives. WASHNET RWANDA’s advocacy strategy focuses much on mitigation and resilience in face of emergency eruption.