DENVER, CO, Nov. 25, 2009 -- Water For People, a Denver-based nonprofit international development organization, was recognized by the African Ministers' Council on Water (AMCOW) recently for its commitment to programs in Malawi that have supported and mobilized communities to improve water and sanitation conditions.
Water For People was selected as the runner-up for the AMCOW AfricaSan Award for NGO/Civil Society at the second African Water Week in Johannesburg, South Africa, this month. AMCOW is the driving force behind the AfricaSan movement, a regional initiative that seeks to place sanitation and hygiene at the top of the development agenda in Africa. The AMCOW AfricaSan Awards are dedicated to recognizing outstanding efforts and achievements in sanitation and hygiene in Africa that result in large-scale, sustainable behavior changes and tangible impacts.
Water For People has been working in Malawi since 2000 helping to provide more than 200,000 beneficiaries with safe drinking water and/or improved sanitation. Malawi ranks among one of the world's poorest and least developed nations in which water-related diseases such as cholera and typhoid fever are common throughout the country due to the lack of clean water and proper sanitation.
Water For People -- Malawi works with communities and schools not only to provide clean drinking water and sanitation systems but also to train community leaders to build, maintain, and sustain their own systems. One such program is known as "Sanitation as a Business" and allows for people to be trained as engineers and then be paid a fee for sustaining sanitation systems in their community. This gives money back to the community while ensuring that water systems are intact long after Water For People leaves.
Over the next five years, Water For People -- Malawi will concentrate most of its resources in the same three regions it is working in now: the Chikwawa District in the south, the peri-urban areas surrounding Blantyre, and the Rumphi District in the north. The long-term goal is to serve 40,000 people per year by 2011 with water, sanitation, and hygiene education.
About Water For People
Founded in 1991, Water For People is a Denver-based private, nonprofit international humanitarian organization that supports the development of sustainable safe drinking water resources and improved sanitation facilities in developing countries. The nongovernmental organization is distinguished by its focus on local private sector development, interorganization collaboration, social entrepreneurship, and the engagement of stakeholders, which combine together to achieve sustainability. The organization has active water, sanitation, and hygiene education programs in 10 countries in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America. Water For People is a charity of choice of the American water and wastewater community. For more information, visit www.waterforpeople.org.
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