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Healing Trauma: The Church is a Hospital for Souls

Participants receiving Bibles during the Trauma Healing Program.
Participants receiving Bibles during the Trauma Healing Program.
Posted September 21st, 2018 by Mackenzie Schiff.

Refugees fleeing conflict and persecution experience trauma that no person should have to endure. In northern Uganda’s refugee settlements, where thousands have fled from violent civil war in South Sudan, the local church is playing a vital role in their healing process, with support from Water Mission Uganda’s Evangelism and Discipleship (E&D) team. “The role of the Church in refugee settlements is critical because it fills a gap only the Church can fill. Different agencies in the settlement [provide safe water]. The health center… is the best place to seek medical attention. However, none of these can offer solutions to a ... Read More

Enabling responsive support for water services with the MAP

Safe water system in rural Malawi.
Safe water system in rural Malawi.
Posted August 2nd, 2018 by Andrew Armstrong.

In 2017, Water Mission launched a major initiative that fundamentally changed the way we monitor and support rural water services throughout our global programs. Driven by our core values of excellence and integrity, we desire for the people we serve in communities, institutions, and areas affected by crisis to enjoy the highest level of water accessibility, safety, and sustainability. With this goal in mind, we collaborated with a consultant (IBM jStart) to develop a tool that would enable efficient and scalable monitoring, support, and learning. The tool, which we call the Monitoring and Alerting Platform (MAP), was designed to make water ... Read More

Measuring Impact with the Restore Survey

Survey participants in Indonesia.
Survey participants in Indonesia.
Posted May 24th, 2018 by Julia Sherry.

At Water Mission, we have long been committed to measuring the outputs of our work such as accessibility, safety, and sustainability of water and sanitation services. For over a year, we have been developing a new survey tool that will allow us to do what we’ve never done before… routinely measure the wide-ranging, transformational impacts of our work in communities. After all, our work does not stop with water and sanitation! We know that God is transforming many aspects of people’s lives through Water Mission. For the first time, we have a tool that will allow us to measure these impacts, ... Read More

Sustainable Management and Finance of Rural Water Supplies

Tap stand in Malawi
Tap stand in Malawi
Posted April 19th, 2018 by Andrew Armstrong.

Poor functionality of rural water supplies is a known and critical crisis. It is estimated that almost 15 percent of rural waterpoints fail after just one year and 25 percent are non-functional by their fourth year in operation.[1] Although there are many root causes of this, they cumulatively manifest themselves in the form of inadequate financing for ongoing operation and maintenance. One method, which takes a social business approach to water service delivery, is becoming known as the “safe water enterprise” model. Under this approach, private water service providers deliver water to end users for a fee and utilize ... Read More

Set up for Success: Transitioning Project Ownership

Safe Water Committee in Uganda
Safe Water Committee in Uganda
Posted April 11th, 2018 by Jeanna Walls.

For a safe water project, the transition from being managed by Water Mission to being managed by the recipient community is the last step of a successful implementation. With more than 2,400 projects now being overseen by local Safe Water Committees (SWCs), Water Mission has a lot of experience with transferring project responsibilities. At the same time, a commitment to excellence pushes the organization to constantly improve the process. One foundational belief that has shaped Water Mission’s implementation approach is that community investment and commitment to a project directly correlate to long-term sustainability. When community members embrace ownership, it indicates that ... Read More

Investing in Relationships: 2018 Indonesia Workshop

2018 Indonesia Workshop
2018 Indonesia Workshop
Posted April 5th, 2018 by Mackenzie Schiff.

Water Mission routinely organizes learning workshops for staff to identify strengths, challenges, and opportunities for improvement across global programs. Purposefully calling these “workshops” rather than “trainings,” Water Mission aims to emphasize the importance of two-way conversation. Charleston staff members attend to share updates from headquarters, gain insights from the field, and facilitate conversations focused on best practices. In January, staff from Charleston and Indonesia gathered for an engineering and community development workshop. They presented updates on strategy, global standards, innovations in engineering, and community development processes. At a breakout session, the group discussed complex obstacles and potential solutions for a few specific ... Read More