Theresa Morfaw Fonjia
Margaret Munga Morfaw
Nominated by: Veronica Kini of Cameroon Grassroots Women Educational, Economic and Social Advancement Network (CAGWEESA)
Location: Bamenda, Cameroon

Theresa Morfaw Fonjia is a Youth Advocate, women rights leader, and Community Organizer. She carries out projects that increase dialogue and engagement of various stakeholders to recognize women’s rights. Her current work focuses on women with HIV/AIDS. “The vulnerability of women to the pandemic results in erosion of livelihood strategies. Women are forced into irrational exploitation of natural resources including soil and water. I have been active in getting women to stop the practice of slash and burn agriculture by the use of compost, soil fixing agro forestry and organic manure.” Furthermore, because water is often difficult for women suffering from HIV/AIDS to obtain, Theresia organizes groups to collect water for the patients.

Margaret Munga Morfaw is a nurse and health advocate working in the Northwest and Southwest Regions of Cameroon. She recognizes that water related issues are crucial to good health. She has worked on protecting watersheds, fundraised for water projects, promoted proper hygiene and sanitation, and protected water sources from contamination with human waste. By mastering new technological skills, Margaret will be able to train other women to carry out local sustainable water technologies. “I am already used to such trainings in the domain of HIV/AIDS, malaria, family planning, food and nutrition and would equally carry it out with water.”

Theresia and Margaret would like to protect catchment areas and watersheds. “We need to learn about technologies of construction from locally available materials. We also need to know how to dig wells and prevent them [from] collapsing and how to treat well water for safe usage.”

 

Alice Balemba Njanga
Catherine Makane Mwengella
Nominated by: Rosemary Olive Mbone Enie of Action Against Climate Change (AACC)
Location: Buea, Cameroon

Alice Balemba Njanga is the Deputy Mayor of the Konye Rural Council.  She is working in conjunction with Women for Peace and Cameroon Vision Trust in assisting communities across the Konye Rural Council to have access to clean and safe water and adequate sanitation. She would like to provide training programs that further water, health, hygiene and sanitation education. Currently, she addresses the issues of education, health care, livelihoods and sustainable development in her region. Going forward she would also like to provide inexpensive, easily maintained, locally constructed technologies that addresses the women’s needs in accessing clean water for their families.

 

 

 

Catherine Makane Mwengella is the President of the NGO, Women for Peace. Together, she and Alice have created a team to establish community water projects for the Mwangale Village, Konye Sub division,Meme Division, and South West Region of Cameroon. The villages currently lack proper sanitation and hygiene education. The lack of education combined with shared sanitation facilities increases serious health problems for the villagers. Catherine believes that with the proper training, she will be able to implement new safe water technologies, i.e. pumps, filtration and harvesting systems and then   train the women of the communities to properly use, maintain and perform all repairs.

Since most people in the villages have access to 20 or less liters (approximately five gallons) of water per day, Alice and Catherine’s water projects are imperative to the health and safety of the villages.  With community collaboration, they know they can implement projects that create positive change.

 

Georgina Akoto
Comfort Twumwaah
Nominated by: Dutenya Rockson of the Hunger Project
Location: Kwahu Praso, Ghana

Georgina Akoto works in the Kwahu Praso region of Ghana.  Georgina holds many leadership positions involving both women and water.  Her positions include Treasurer of the Water and Sanitation Committee (WATSANC), leader of a women’s mentorship program for economic stability and income generation, Co-Coordinator of a school health program educating on the subject of HIV and AIDS awareness and a peer tutor in partnership with the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG).  Georgina’s involvement with mobilizing women gives her the tools needed to lead community water projects; namely household water treatment, rain water harvesting, and hand pump maintenance and repair initiatives.

Comfort Twumwaah also works in Kwahu Praso, actively spearheading water and sanitation activities in both her and Georgina’s community. Comfort works as a Women’s Empowerment Program Animator for the Hunger Project. She plays a key role in the management of water and sanitation facilities, sensitizing community members on good hygiene practices as well as protecting water resources. She trains women in improved agronomic practices, encourages environmental sustainability, and provides leadership to her community by training women through a Vision, Commitment and Action (VCA) model.  Her educational sessions help to change community member’s tendencies, especially women, from dependency to self reliance.

Jointly, Georgina and Comfort would like to implement water technology projects in their community. With proper training, they believe they can increase the health and safety of their community. They would like to focus their efforts on well and hand pump installation, maintenance and repair.

 

Florence Fati Abdulai Iddrisu
Fulera Mumuni
Nominated by: Wuni Zaligu Development Association (WUZDA)
Location: Tamale, Ghana

Florence Fati Abdulai Iddrisu is also a volunteer for WUZDA and works with Fati in assisting communities prepare CAPs.  She engages with water service providers on issues affecting quality and delivery.  She trains women water venders to help manage small-town water systems and influence district water and sanitation board’s decisions that affect the water quality delivery.  Florence’s “development experience has helped women to gain their fundamental human rights.” As a gender advocate of 12 years, she believes that citizens-government engagement, community action plans, and interface meetings with stakeholders is the best way to create sensitization and awareness for women.

Fulera Mumuni is the Water Board Treasurer for WUZDA.  She conducts needs assessments on community environmental issues such as degradation and water pollution. Based on the findings, she assists the communities in developing action plans (CAPs), sustainable actions and solutions. Through women’s focus groups, Fati assists in identifying the priorities of the women. Through mixed male and female advocacy teams, she provides awareness training and sensitization on the effects of environment degradation/water pollution are given. With additional training, given from this project, Fati will train other women in effective water quality delivery technologies, creating a sustainable delivery method in her area.

In Florence and Fulera’s community, water is piped to only those who can afford it.  Therefore, during the dry season, women and girls must walk to the river to obtain water for their families.  Since sewage facilities exist close to the river, contamination has become a major problem.  Fati and Florence would like to mobilize the community to fully address this problem.

 

Nadiatu Ali Dawud
Victoria Boapok Yaro
Nominated by: Peter Ndonwie of Pan African Organisation for Research and Protection of Violence on Women and Children (PAORP-VWC)
Location: Tamale, Ghana

Nadiatu Ali Dawud works within the Baare community of Ghana creating awareness about issues related to proper hygiene and sanitation. The Baare community does not have a good source of drinking water; therefore waterborne diseases like diarrhea and typhoid are common. Nadiatu is a vital part of this community as she advocates for their health and environmental rights. As a community leader and environmental advocate, she enhances local women’s skills in water harnessing and management. Her previous projects have included campaigning and lobbying for environmental protection laws, re-forestation efforts, proper sewage disposal and hygiene/sanitation trainings, rainwater harvesting and proper water storage.

Victoria Boapok Yaro partners with Nadiatu in the Baare region.  She too campaigns for environmental protection in the community, carrying out sensitization projects for proper sewage disposal, hygiene and sanitation techniques, water purification methods and other environmental health related programs focused on women and youth. She believes that “building skills of women and youth [will allow them to] involve more of their time to protect the environment while undertaking their daily activities.”  Through community projects and campaigns for women to be at the center of decision making in water management committees, Victoria has begun build a foundation for positive change amid the Baare region.

Together, Nadiatu and Victoria believe that water protection programs should be carried out with “Gender Sensitive Participatory Approaches”.  With added help, they can train their community in affordable local technology, while enhancing the indigenous knowledge of water harnessing and treatment.

 

Benedicta  Enyonam
Victoria Datsomor Norgbey
Nominated by: Mawunyo Puplampu of Water Health
Location: Dzemeni &Accra, Ghana

Benedicta  Enyonam  Datsomor works in Dzemeni, Ghana as a Community Health Volunteer, educating the local population, especially school children about water borne diseases and water resource management. Benedicta believes that children can be used as “agents of change”, and so through a composition of songs and the children’s theatrical performances she increases the community’s understanding of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) activities.  She elucidates on the relationship between safe potable water and good health. As a leader of her community, she has implemented a project against cross-contamination that is successfully reducing household water pollution and increased safe consumption.

Victoria Datsomor Norgbey works as a Community Mobilizer and Education Officer for WaterHealth Ghana in Accra. She also volunteers for Global Women Development Promoters and collaborates with Agbedidi (a local non-profit who’s name translates to long-life), and World Vision. Amongst these organizations, Victoria coordinates education projects and workshops on health, hygiene and the environment to promote quality potable water. One of her current projects is facilitating a weekly, local radio program that discusses WASH activities in the local schools. She also organizes capacity building workshops for other women leaders and monitors community water projects, ensuring successful implementation of the health, hygiene and sanitation programs.

Some of the most challenging water issues in Benedicta and Victoria’s communities are pollution, biological contaminants and a lack of sanitation facilities.  They believe with the proper training, they will be able to implement successful water technology programs in their communities.

 

Agnes Korletey
Paulina Kuma
Nominated by: Donkor Oduro of ProNet
Location: Accra, Ghana

Agnes Korletey works in Accra, Ghana as a Health Promoter focusing on sanitation, water transportation/storage and food preservation. Agnes provides direction to the public at the sub-district level. As a leader of her community, she monitors and supervises hygiene action plans and activities. Her previous projects have included latrine construction, school health-education projects, and water supply and sanitation (WatSan) training. Utilizing participatory development tools, Agnes helps address her community’s water problems. Because her community must collect water from boreholes, the river and rainwater, Agnes’s efforts are extraordinarily important to make sure the families in her area have access to safe water.

Paulina Kuma also works at the community-level in Accra, Ghana and partners with Agnes as a Health Educator and Hygiene Promoter focusing on sanitation, water transportation/storage and food preservation. Paulina supports other women in her community by providing training and enabling them to effectively facilitate their own water and sanitation related activities in their respective communities. Through regularly scheduled visits and team training, she supports multiple communities in their effort to provide a safe water supply to all. Paulina shows “immense leadership skills in handling community level intervention,” and would like to continue her efforts by learning new techniques for low-cost water and sanitation facilities.

Agnes and Paulina have both been working as environmental health professionals for the last eight years. Noted by their organization, Pronet, both of these women are independent and dynamic with a vast amount of experience facilitating community work. They continue to lead “communities to successfully initiate sanitation and hygiene interventions.”

 

Maima Fahbullah
Rosemary Olive Mbone
Nominated by: Rosemary Olive Mbone Enie of Action Against Climate Change
Location: Monrovia, Liberia

Maima Fahbullah has worked in collaboration with Rosemary to establish the Matamo Community Development Agency (MACODA) Water Project. Through this project and the Community Health Education and School Sanitation (CHESS) Project, Maima works to address the needs of clean, safe water and adequate sanitation by providing training in proper health and hygiene techniques. Sources of water in her area can be scarce, coming from boreholes, rainwater only during the rainy season, and the Matamo and Than rivers. Therefore, she believes providing training in rainwater harvesting and water treatment will effect the greatest change for the women and their communities.

Rosemary Olive Mbone is the President of the Society for Women Empowerment Education and Training (SWEET) and Gender Ambassador for Gender and Water Alliance (GWA) in the Netherlands. She is also the Vice President of the Matamo Community Development Agency (MACODA) Water Project and a water consultant with the UN Habitat and UNDP. Rosemary  has worked across Central, West and East Africa empowering women and youth to take an active role in their communities and becoming positive agents of change. She feels this training will give her the necessary skills, knowledge and experience to add a water dimension to her current projects.

Collaboratively, Maima and Rosemary work with 26 towns and villages within the Tewor District of the Grand Cape Mount County of Liberia. They believe the Global Women’s Water Initiative will assist in expanding their current efforts to strengthen the efforts of grassroots women working to protect their water resources.

 

Lydie Mariko
Chata Tangara
Nominated by: Totegue Emmanuel Dembele of World Vision
Location: Ségou, Mali

Lydie Mariko facilitates water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) trainings used to create community action plans. She also creates collaborative problem-solving boards, capacity building networks, grassroots financial management systems and technical service training. Because a collaborative approach to problem solving is pro-active and involves many stakeholders, the likelihood that long-term projects will succeed increases. Currently, Lydie would like to continue her grassroots efforts by learning to design and implement a water service project with innovative and easy-to-use technology. She believes the training in water storage, solar pasteurization, needs assessment and business skills will be vital to empowering the women of her community.

Chata Tangara is a finance manager at the community level. The self-reliance tools of budgeting, cost recovery, income-generation, marketing and micro-financing provided at the Global Women’s Water Initiative will assist her in successfully implementing a new water project in her community.  Chata also defines herself as an animator; one that provides or imparts life, interest, spirit, or vitality to environmental and water related issues.  Chata specifically works on disease prevention, latrine realization, and environmental cleanliness. The current technology used for water treatment in her area is bleaching.  Chata would like to provide women with other tools and technologies available that support healthy hygiene and sanitation practices.

The people of Lydie and Chata’s community have to retrieve their water from the village well or boreholes, which are often dirty or unsafe. Together, Lydie and Chata will be able to increase the knowledge and skills of women in their community, ensuring each families access to clean and safe water.

 

Ndudi Bowei
Elizabeth Noah
Nominated by: International Center for Environmental Health & Development (ICEHD)
Location: Lagos, Nigera

Ndudi Bowei works as a Community Programs Coordinator for health, water and environmental advocacy programs.  She designs and implements projects such as borehole construction and well and rain water collection, purification and storage for local women. As a grassroots advocate, her work includes increasing access to clean water, proper waste management practices, vector control and a healthy environment for all. Through community forums and environmental education workshops, she improves her community’s water access and creates strong pro-active community groups for a clean environment. “I support women working alongside me by providing them with relevant information and materials that would keep them informed and help them build their capacities to work more effectively.”

Elizabeth Noah is a community health educator and female activist. Her work consists of detecting sources of polluted water that spreads water-borne and water related illness; such as malaria, cholera and bird flu. Mobilizing women, she organizes discussion forums and protests for improved health at the community level. Elizabeth’s work is fundamental to the health of her community. Her monitoring and reporting of environmental, health, water and sanitation problems, such as improper disposal of company waste products, keeps the population appraised of risk areas.  Through the engagement of companies and government officials about proper management of pollutions and emissions, she is able to promote community health.

Ndudi and Elizabeth “work together in unity and honesty for a common goal which is to improve access to clean water, good health, a healthy environment and development for women” in their community. Through cooperation, they will continue to reduce the burden women face in looking for water for their homes.

 

Adewole Adefunke Mojirade
Sarah A Yapwa
Nominate by: ActionAid Nigeria
Location: Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria

Adewole Adefunke Mojirade works with the Partnership against Poverty. Her work encompasses sinking boreholes, digging wells, constructing public toilets, providing lessons on good hygiene and overall raising the population’s awareness of water safety. Adewole is also a community advocate and supports local populations in their fight for rights at the local and state levels. Provisions she has worked on include the right to education, health, justice and democratic governance, women’s rights and human and food security in times of conflict. When the community’s needs are denied, especially for the safety of mother and child, Adewole finds a way to provide the required facilities.

Sarah A Yapwa is a community leader with Hope for the Lonely. Sarah supports and empowers communities through education and sensitization of topics including HIV/AIDS, gender equality, women’s health, the creation of a rights-based approach to development and safe and sanitary water procedures. She believes that gender must be addressed in all development decisions including those at the state level. “Gender needs to be seen in the overall context of poverty and the men in the community must be involved.” For her community, she would like to plan, design and evaluate water projects through a gendered lens, ensuring the participation of all.

Adewole and Sarah’s community lacks clean and safe water and adequate sanitation facilities.  Together they would like to train safe water harvesting practices, preservation and storage for future use, safe water treatment techniques and sewage disposal management.

 

Inyene Jeremiah Okon
Idongesit Anthony Umoh
Nominated by: Emem Jeremiah Okon of the Kebetkache Women Development & Resource Centre
Location: River State, Nigeria

Inyene Jeremiah Okon works as a community and grassroots advocate fighting against the impact of environmental degradation on local communities. Women are often discriminated against during the decision making process, therefore, Inyene takes the role of facilitating women’s involvement into community development procedures. She has served in multiple regions, implementing projects in Ika (Akwa Ibom state), Erema, Akala-olu and Ubio (Rivers state) and Ogbia and Biseni communities (Bayelsa state). Because there is no pipe-borne water in these areas, the people drink from wells and boreholes. Thus, Inyene advocates for more clean water sources and campaigns against corporate pollution near water supplies.

Idongesit Anthony Umoh is a grassroots community organizer.  Her passion revolves around advocacy campaigns that impact the activities of oil companies who cause environmental damage to local communities, especially women. Odongesit is also a facilitator for local women, contributing efforts towards building a community market, an installation of monopump and a community cassava grinding machine. Both Idogesit and Inyene have worked together in the rural areas of Ika, Biseni, Ogoni, Ubio and Akala-olu communities in Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa and River states on environmental advocacy, women’s rights issues, peace advocacy and HIV/AIDS education for community women. Together they “organize women in the community for action.”

Inyene and Idongesit have made an “impact in campaigns against environmental violence against women at the community level.” Together, they believe they can improve the knowledge, skills and technical assistance to communities needing access to safe water.

 

Rosline Egbowe
Gloria Urevbu
Nominated by: Poverty Alleviation for the Poor Initiative (PAFPI)
Location: Delta State, Nigeria

Rosline Egbowe is a Project Officer working on integrated community development designs that faciliate sustainable living. She focuses on community capacity building and self development for local women and children. One of her current projects is the co-initiation, design, implementation and management of a bee farming training project.  Rosline and Gloria work together on this project to reverse the trends of  poverty while empowering women to manage their own development projects. Together they will continue this effort by teaching women safe and sustainable water techniques in the hopes that they will implement and manage their own water treatment methods at the local level.

Gloria Urevbu trains community members, primarily women, on proper beekeeping methods.  Gloria teaches in eight communities along the Niger Delta, where beekeeping has become an important source of income generation, and a means of sustaining the environment. From Gloria’s training, women have been able to recruit and teach other women to practice beekeeping as well.  Now these women are looking into additional income generating activities to sustain their livelihoods. Gloria believes through this initiative, she can further build the communities ability to implement and manage grassroots water projects.  She would like to introduce household water purification techniques for the women and their families.

Both Roseline and Gloria have been involved in grassroots mobilization, giving them the knowledge and capability to launch a successful water project in their communities.  These women have a “rare ability to carry women along in their work, which contribute[s] immensely to the success of such projects.”

 

Prisca Adzo Enyonam Ahialegbedzi
Enyonam Nanevie
Nominated by: Elizabeth Maxwell of Building Community Bridges, Inc.
Location: Lomé, Togo

Prisca Adzo Enyonam Ahialegbedzi is a grassroots organizer with Amnesty Togo.  Her work has entailed improving the capacity of the community leaders and organizing sensitization activities of rural areas.  She teaches communities how to manage, conserve and safely keep their water resources. Prisca’s community gets their water resources from rain or the river, which can take up to three hours to retrieve. Therefore, it is imperative that they have safe, properly maintained storage facilities.  Because the water is not treated and pollution and biological contaminants are challenging issues, Prisca would like to provide grassroots women with filtration methods and technology to conserve water hygienically.

Enyonam Nanevie is the founder of Building Community Bridges, Inc. “I have built a nonprofit organization for the purpose of leading projects to build water pumps in rural communities in West Africa.” She is currently working in Togo mentoring local girls and young women. She believes that rural women need mental and emotional support to realize their potential at solving issues of their own communities. Enyoman would like training in all water technologies available so that she can provide relevant training to each community’s specific circumstances.  Enyonam is particularly interested in sanitation strategies, maintenance of existing pumps, and water treatment and purification techniques.

Prisca and Enyonam want to “produce changes that are by and for the people within rural villages that need water; where the villagers will sustain and maintain the well and its upkeep.” Every day they support women working in a team environment, helping each other and acquiring new skills or augmenting their existing knowledge.

 

Ame Akakpo
Mattia Guidihoun Sénadé
Nominated by: Séna Alouka of Jeunes Volontaires pour l’Environnement (JVE)
Location: Lomé, Togo

Ame Akofa Akakpo is a community trainer in Lomé, Togo working to protect the environment and the safety of the people.  Ame’s has created projects such as female revenue research groups, nature preservation training, sensitizing on hygiene and the creation of a water purification system that provides safe drinking to the locals. Although Ame’s target community is able to get water from a municipality, they still struggle with pollution and biological contaminants, especially during the drought seasons. Therefore, she believes modern technologies will empower and strengthen the efforts of the women working to protect their water resources.

Mattia Guidihoun Sénadé is a Solar Energy Technician working on solar lamps, solar cookers and improved stove technology. Mattia’s projects reduce deforestation in the Vo District of Togo, improve the use of energy, fight against climate change and provide women with a clean and inexpensive source of energy. One of her current projects is the creation of a Resource Centre for Sustainable Energy Solutions. This project is aimed at reducing deforestation and enabling underprivileged peoples in Togo to have access to affordable, reliable and environment-friendly energy and energy-related knowledge, which will ultimately improve their living conditions.

Women have to travel over a kilometer in Ame and Mattia’s villages to bring water back to their families.  While the women also use rainwater catchment, many are left with under 20liters of unsafe water daily.  This work will give solace to the local women because they will have the ability to provide safe water to their families.