ABANYAMURAVA: HARD WORKER Providing Clean Water to Fight Sexual Exploitation for Basic Needs

ISSUE:
In a community on the outskirts of mountainous Kigali, a team of nineteen women led by Seraphine Hacimana have been particularly troubled by the long journey they must embark upon each day to collect water down a long hill to a dirty creek bed. In addition to the disease and poor hygiene associated with poor water access, many of those who were left physically disabled or HIV positive from the genocide are unable to collect for their daily needs. Instead, they are forced to turn to local men with bicycle access, some of whom have begun exploiting them for sex in return for water delivery.

SOLUTION:
Hard Workers constructed a water tank within close walking distance of their village, which allows them to collect rain water in the rainy season and take delivery by truck during the dry seasons. The project now supplies 100 households (household size is usually 6 -10 people) with fresh clean water. Furthermore, the team donates water to those in need, including handicapped women, the blind, the elderly and the sick. Profits are further used to pay school fees for local orphans and buy health insurance for vulnerable women.

By providing clean and affordable water to their community members, Abanyamurava is working to reduce the prevalence of water related disease as well as diminish the vulnerability of women who are unable to make the long journey to what was previously, the only other water source.

IMPACT:
This project team serves 100 households, or over 800 people, with water daily. This social project also:

donates 10 jerry cans of water per tank to five orphan headed households,
pays the school fees for five children who are AIDS orphans or genocide orphans and
buys annual health insurance for 15 women and their families
Having completed their second year of sustainable operations, the team is preparing to expand to one additional site to reach another 1000 people, and is building a microfinance fund for vulnerable women. Its leaders have been called upon to speak frequently about their work nationwide. Seraphine and her team are now seen as the first to bring development to their remote community. Once living on the edge of survival, Seraphine, a 39 year old mother of 8 children, with a 1st grade education, is now considered a community leader.