Women & Girls
When she married ten years ago, Alphonsine Mukanoheri moved from her home village in the east of Rwanda to her new home in Rurembo Village, Gicumbi, a district in the north. As happy as she was to have married the love of her life, Alphonsine knew she would face one big challenge – accessing water.…
Growing up in a remote, rural part of western Rwanda, Immaculée Mukamutesi, 47, always struggled to access clean water. Every morning, she says, women and girls got up early and walked long distances to fetch water in a valley downhill. “It took us about an hour and a half to get to the water source,”…
Josephine Nibamuhoze, a 40 year’s old mother who lives in Mbabe Cell, Masaka Sector of Kicukiro District, still remembers the days when she would come from farming hungry and instead of going to cook, she would instead pick a jerrycan and head downhill to collect water. On other days, she had to wake up as…
Folomina’s face lights up when she talks about her toilet. Two years ago, the state of water and sanitation in Folomina’s village was dire. She and the other 20 families in her community would walk two hours each day for water. The sanitation situation was just as bad. Most latrines didn’t have roofs, so they…
Didacienne had five children and no home of her own. Her husband died nearly 25 years ago in the Rwandan genocide, and after that she had few options to provide for her family – they lived with various family members to get by. And without water in their village, life was difficult. For Didacienne and…