Step Forward

ISSUE:
We are working to address malnutrition resulting from spending too much time for water collection. Women and children walk more than 2 hours to get to the closest water taps. If they have to stay at a water tap a long time, then they become unable to accomplish the rest of their activities on time. In our traditional culture, men believe that they are the priority to care for, so, once the meals are not ready on time, it can trigger domestic violence against women. Poor hygiene due to limited time or water scarcity, results in women being rejected by their husbands who are unfaithful, and they consequently become the single caretakers of their children. Women under stress and violence are unable to care for their children. They may no longer think about or value their children's diet. Further, lack of knowledge about what a healthy diet is, due to having no access to health in school, also plays a big role in the existence of malnutrition. When water is limited, people do not care for their hygiene, which results in malnutrition as well. Having too many children is also a trigger of malnutrition because women get busy with childcare and lack time to prepare healthy meals. Families of low income value health less and prefer to eat quantity not quality. When the children eat unhealthy, they drop out of school because malnutrition itself causes other illness and low intellectual capacity.

MISSION:
Our mission is to advance the wellbeing of the population living in Agateko cell/Jali Sector, through training on how to prepare a balanced meal, training on family planning, training on violence against women and young girls and installing a water tap for access to clean water in our community.

THEORY OF CHANGE:
We believe that:

• If we provide training on malnutrition, women will have the knowledge to be able to prepare a balanced diet for their family, and the number of children who face illness will decrease.
• If we provide training on family planning, couples will commit to have a limited number of children according to their economic capacity and that will reduce the number of children malnourished.
• Training on women's rights will allow the men to advance their mindsets from traditional culture and insert gender equality into their relationship as a couple.
• Access to water through our venture will allow the women to accomplish their daily responsibility properly with enough time to participate in other profitable activities.
• A woman without violence, a child with a healthy life, and a man who values and cares for his family are the keys of family well-being.

SOLUTION:
We will serve clean water to 3240 people through our water pipeline project. We will provide 3 days of training on women's rights and healthy meals to 50 couples. At the end of this training, the couples will go back to train and influence more community members. After that, we will organize home visits to sensitize community members selected by social health workers on WASH topics in order to improve hygiene and keep water healthy. We will make home visits house by house once a month over five months. We will provide training on family planning to 60 households once a month over four months and that will include 10 future couples in order to raise awareness among young couples.

12-MONTH GOALS:

• 80% of our beneficiaries will not have to walk more than 30 minutes to the water tap.
• 70% of women and men will commit to sharing domestic tasks, as evidence of greater gender equity.
• 65% of families will prepare balance meals, the number of children with malnutrition symptoms will be decreased by 60% and 60% of children will return to school.
• After two years, 100% of violence against women and children at the water taps will be eliminated.