GLOBAL PROGRAM UPDATE: WATER, SANITATION, AND HYGIENE (WASH) Your Impact: Generational Impact through WASH Half the world’s population lack access to proper sanitation resources in their home. Additionally, over 2 billion people globally lack access to clean drinking water and hygiene resources such as soap and sanitizer. For this reason, Nazarene Compassionate Ministries partners with local churches worldwide to provide training, education, and resources to equip communities for healthy living through WASH. Through building wells and latrines, training community members on how to operate and repair them, and educating them about healthy practices, communities can shift their focus from combating water-borne illness to living into God’s good plans and purposes for their lives. In Ghana, community members have received training to build wells and latrines. Children have participated in the sanitation and hygiene training. They are seen as ambassadors to the community, passing their knowledge on to other children and families so that everyone can experience good health benefits from sanitation resources.
Wells like this one provide clean water that will help families avoid illnesses and live a full and healthy life.
One emphasis of WASH in Kenya is to empower community health workers to teach women healthy practices.
In India, some WASH participants can now invest resources in small businesses because they are no longer sick from water-borne illnesses.
Reducing child morbidity caused by chronic stomach illness spread by unclean water is the focus of WASH in Zambia.
Community health alliances in Cote d’Ivore are used by local volunteers to help train community members on healthy WASH practices.
Children leading the way in Ghana Atibil is a 32-year-old farmer and teacher whose family benefitted from WASH when he learned how to construct and maintain a latrine. Over the course of the last year, he has seen more people implement the WASH practices that they learned and has become an advocate for WASH in the community, giving people rides when they can’t get to the trainings themselves. He has witnessed the children in his classroom take pride in their learning and teach other kids healthy hygiene practices. “I hope to see a unified community growing in good health. The program is really bringing the community together, and it is beautiful. I hope and pray the children in the community do not let go of what they started but keep on so the community will be safe now and in the future,” said Atibil.
Learn more at ncm.org/WASH