Help Vulnerable Women Become Leaders of Change

Hello! All of us at Global Grassroots hope that you have been enjoying this holiday season. And, as always, we want to thank you for your support of our Women’s Academy for Conscious Change.

Since our last report, so much has happened! Since then, we have received and approved completed water venture proposals from nearly all of the twelve teams who completed our formal training in July. Currently, the teams are waiting for estimated costs from WASAC, the municipal water company. WASAC officials have completed site visits to all of the individual team locations to assess the cost of each venture and they will provide the estimated budgets to our Rwanda office in the coming weeks. In the meantime, each team is completing their issues studies, processing their sector registrations, and opening bank accounts through which they not only will receive their start-up funds and subsequent tranches from Global Grassroots, they will be able to pay contractors and others when construction begins. Our local staff visits teams weekly during the venture development process.

One team, named Vision, is focusing on unemployment and lack of skills as they relate to water. The team is from a village called Nkusi, about an hour and half’s drive from Kigali by way of a long, winding road to the top of a mountain. A couple of the team’s leaders are men and they believe that their mission is to convince other men in the community how critical the social issues facing women are. The team, as a whole, is very ambitious and organized and we are delighted by their commitment and their efforts.

The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation has provided Global Grassroots with partial funding for this ambitious undertaking; we need to raise the rest. When completed, the cost per ultimate beneficiary receiving clean water and other gender-based violence services will equate to less than $6 once all teams are operating - and 30,000 people will have access to clean water right in the heart of their villages. That's all: just $6 per person for permanent, sustainable access to clean water.

As we start off a new year filled with hope and possibilities, will you help us make clean, safe water not just a possibility but a reality for thousands of people – mostly women and children? Thank you so much for your support!

From all of us at Global Grassroots, we wish you a very happy and healthy 2016!