Women + Water
From the day they are born, women and young girls are disproportionately affected by the global water crisis. Their time, dignity, and futures depend on safe water – making the water crisis a women’s crisis.
A long walk for water
In the developing world, women often hold the sole responsibility of collecting water for their families. They walk miles each day on dangerous roads searching for water; however, the dirty water they carry back home can be just as deadly. Their route can be dangerous as they risk being attacked by wild animals and other people or as they navigate rough and unsafe terrain.
Women and young girls spend 200 million hours every day collecting water.
A limited future
Time spent collecting water or becoming ill from water-related diseases like cholera, typhoid, and dysentery make women and young girls sick and threaten their lives. These conditions jeopardize the education and career opportunities of girls by keeping them out of school and often forcing them to drop out.
Girls between 5 and 14 years old spend 160 million more hours a day on collecting water compared to boys their age.
Stolen dignity
Women experience extreme emotional tolls when they lack access to improved sanitation facilities, such as latrines. Without a toilet, women’s dignity is at risk, often forcing them to practice open-defecation, dramatically affecting a community’s health and wellbeing. A lack of sanitation infrastructure negatively impacts women during their menstrual cycles. Young girls without access to a safe place to menstruate at school often miss classes during their cycle or drop out entirely.
A half a billion women lack access to an improved toilet.
Empower women through clean water and provide an equal opportunity to rise to their fullest potential!
Meet Jasmine
In South Asia, women like 24-year-old Jasmine lived in constant fear that there would never be enough water for their children. Each day, she walked to a hand-dug pit where the animals bathed to collect water for her parents, husband, and two kids—who were frequently sick because of the unsafe water.
Her community’s water crisis marked Jasmine’s entire life, but that changed. See her story in this video.
Unless we do something to help, women like Jasmine all over the world will waste the untold hours of their lives caught in this vicious cycle.
Meet Jasmine
In South Asia, women like 24-year-old Jasmine lived in constant fear that there would never be enough water for their children. Each day, she walked to a hand-dug pit where the animals bathed to collect water for her parents, husband, and two kids—who were frequently sick because of the unsafe water.
Her community’s water crisis marked Jasmine’s entire life, but that changed. See her story in this video.
Unless we do something to help, women like Jasmine all over the world will waste the untold hours of their lives caught in this vicious cycle.
Change starts with her.
Mercy
The water crisis nearly cost Mercy her life when she was attacked by a crocodile while collecting water at the river. Safe access to clean water has alleviated Mercy’s fears.
Teresita
Pesticides from nearby sugarcane fields were polluting Teresita’s water source, causing extreme illness and even death. Clean water ensures that her family will never experience tragedy from unclean water again.
Lillian
For decades, Lilian and her neighbors suffered when they could not locate water in their community. Listen to an audio reading from Zimbabwe as Lilian shares how God called her to transform in more ways than one through safe water.
