Water and Education
As a child in an area with low levels of water, the responsibility of gathering water for your family
will often fall to you. You will frequently miss school to do this, and as a result you will not receive
a complete education. This will prohibit you from obtaining many well-paying occupations, and as this
fate befalls many of those around you, the few jobs that remain will likely be taken by someone else.
With much of the population unemployed, and many others clamoring for the same jobs, an astonishingly
low percentage of the population will occupy the higher-paying positions. This, in turn, will harm the
nation’s economy, and the cycle of poverty will continue.
This is only one of the countless reasons why the water crisis must be attended to.
If you want to help these students but do not know how, look no further than the actions of the
organization Water for People, which provided the schools of the Kisaro Sector in Rwanda with clean
water. Throughout the schools are newly-cleaned bathrooms, as well as drinking and handwashing stations.
Every day, two Water for People employees teach the kids in these schools about water and hygiene. Not
long after these changes were made, student attendance increased by an astounding amount.
This is only one example of the impact of clean water on education. A study conducted by the United
Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund came to the conclusion that school attendance increased
by 12% if water was provided close by.
You, too, can support this cause by donating at this link: donate.
To read more more stories, click on this link: stories.