Kenya RAPID Garissa Team: (from left) Sam Ombeki, Thomas Ihura, Daniel Kitinga, and Shirwaa Noor
Note: On World Water Day 2021, CARE’s Water Team Director sent out a special email (see below) to all CARE colleagues recognizing the systems strengthening work of CARE’s Kenya RAPID team. Congratulations to the CARE Kenya and Kenya RAPID teams!
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Dear CARE Colleagues,
Happy World Water Day! Celebrate, and grab a tall glass of potable water to toast your favorite body of freshwater!
This year’s World Water Day theme is “Valuing Water,” and today we celebrate the tireless work of CARE’s water+ teams across the globe who remind us of water’s infinite and cross-sectoral value, and who lead CARE’s work to ensure safe and sustainable water access for all (SDG 6).
CARE programs all over the world work to protect vital water resources and improve household access to water as fundamental to health, livelihoods, food and nutrition security, education, wellbeing, and resilience. The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the value of this work even more, and in the last year, CARE programs in at least 69 countries have implemented WASH activities to support COVID-19 prevention.
On this World Water Day, we are proud to award our annual WASH Systems Award to the Kenya-RAPID team at CARE Kenya! Please join us in congratulating the Kenya-RAPID team, who have worked persistently to strengthen WASH governance, increase county investment, and improve WASH access and livelihoods for pastoralist and semi-pastoralist communities in Garissa county. As a result of this work, the county has passed its first Water Policy and established the Garissa Rural Water and Sanitation Company, which will oversee WASH service provision for Garissa’s rural communities. Despite challenging context in Garissa – including insecurity and cyclic drought – the Kenya-RAPID team has helped to increase access to water and sanitation for more than 100,000 people in rural Garissa. Thank you to Sam Ombeki, Thomas Ihura, Shirwaa Noor, Daniel Kitinga and the broader CARE Kenya team for their hard work urging the broader systems change needed to ensure sustainable water and sanitation services for the communities of Garissa! Please read more about their work in the short brief here, and attached.
Finally, please read our Water+ 2020 Annual Report for a retrospective and lessons learned from CARE’s Water+ work in 2020. It has been an eventful year.
Wishing a happy World Water Day to all!
The CARE Water+ Team
Stephanie Ogden | CARE USA | Water Team Director