We Are Together

ISSUE:
We are working on the issue of school drop-outs which has several root causes. There is insufficient water access in our community so children lose time fetching water thus arriving at school late. They fall behind and drop out. There is a lack of appreciation of education by parents and traditional beliefs require children to fetch water. There is a lack of mobilization regarding current beliefs that hinder the possibility of strong families. Lack of family planning means people have more children than they can support and they cannot afford to pay school fees. Diseases caused by unclean drinking water and dirty water containers make children sick and miss school. Domestic violence causes children to stay out of school.

MISSION:
To reduce the number of school drop-outs in our community.

THEORY OF CHANGE:
We believe that:

• By trucking water into our community, it will help children get to school on time and thus help fewer children miss school or need to drop out of school.
• If we carry out sensitizations about gender equality, children will be helped because education will be more valued by everyone in the family.
• By providing family planning education, family sizes will be more manageable and with fewer children there will be more opportunity to afford school fees.
• By providing workshops on hygiene we will reduce diseases caused by using and drinking dirty water and more children will be able to be at school.
• By providing training on gender equality we will reduce the conflicts families experience which will help reduce the number of children who drop out of school because of home-related stress.

SOLUTION:
Our water source is a spring at the bottom of a big, steep hill and it cannot be pumped up to our village so we want to truck in water, providing a monthly salary to a water seller to sell it. We envision providing a workshop on hygiene and water treatment training 2 times a month over 10 months. This will help reduce the cases of diseases caused by using and drinking dirty water. Also we will provide free water to 30 vulnerable families who live in our cell by giving 2 jerricans a day to each family. We will provide 40 very poor families with basic skills through a workshop on job creation by using available resources, 4 times a month over 2 months, to help them improve their living conditions. After we complete this training we will provide training on family planning to 40 couples 2 times a month over 2 months which will help them have a reasonable number of children. The result will be that with fewer children to take care of they can do other things that will help reduce their poor economic state and be better able to pay school fees for the children they do have. We will provide training on gender equality to 40 couples, 2 times a month for 2 months which will help them learn to share family responsibilities and to understand each other thus reducing violence in our community.

12-MONTH GOALS:

• After 1 year, 80% of the Gasura population will have access to clean water.
• After 1 year, the number of school drop outs will be reduced by 20%.
• After 1 year, 30% of 40 families attending the workshop will change their traditional beliefs about family planning and birth control and will help to inspire others.
• Within 1 year, there will be a reduction of late school attendance by 10%.
• After 1 year, 60% of couples who were sensitized about family planning will use family planning methods.
• After 1 year, 70% of trained couples on gender equality will share family responsibilities.