A BETTER WAY TO GIVE
CLEAN WATER
Building sustainable systems and empowering healthy communities for a thriving Uganda
Our 5 year vision is to see 100,000 more people thriving through clean water delivered in a radically sustainable, holistic way.
Join the movement by pledging your commitment or giving monthly to help us raise the $4.5 million dollars in 5 years to make this vision a reality.
It all starts with water.
Can you imagine walking for hours to and from the swamp, only to gather water that leaves you sick or worse? Or having to use whatever income you earn on expensive typhoid medication and lose months of valuable working time, laid up in bed from worms? Or watching your children dropout of school because there are no latrines there for them to safely relieve themselves?
Without water it is very hard for a community to thrive. But with water, everything becomes possible.
Now imagine your village was the fortunate one that received water 20 years ago, but decades later, community population has surpassed what it was projected to be. The strain is too much and you witness nearby villages walking for hours just to use your taps. Worse you see people trying to illegally run their own water lines to their health clinics in the night, just to get water to help mothers giving birth. While you have sympathy, you see the system falling apart, and on less than $1 a day, there’s little you can do to save for repairs. Soon, for reasons completely beyond your control, the entire region will be right back to living in water poverty.
What a tragedy.
Did you know?
Sustainability is Complicated.
It’s something no one wants to talk about, but it’s crucial to address if we’re ever going to change our sector’s track record. We obsess over this issue: how can we better empower our local communities to govern and manage the systems that have been gifted to them? If you want to obsess with us, join us today in a better way to give water.
7 out of 10 water access points put in across Africa have failed
About $1.2 billion dollars in the past 20 years has been spent on water access points that are no longer working
We think there's a better way.
At Acts for Water we believe in a more sustainable, more holistic way of delivering clean, disease free water to those in desperate need. Today, we’re looking for people like you to scale this solution - like never before.
Our Process
We use a unique blend of Gravity Flow Systems (one of the oldest ways in the world to provide water) paired with WASH training so the whole community benefits.
Sustainability
We keep our systems at their best, driven by a strong M&E process.
Focus
We’re unapologetically laser-focused on doing one thing well: clean water in Uganda.
Partnerships
We extend our impact through partnerships – with you, local staff in Uganda, volunteers and other NGOs.
We’re committed to a better way of bringing clean, accessible water to those in desperate need, but we need your partnership to do this.
When clean water is delivered the right way, a tap that turns on, stays on and the community is empowered with the tools, training and resources to maintain it. Sustainability and legacy are primary concerns rather than an afterthought.
When clean water is delivered the right way, it’s complemented by a system of WASH (water, hygiene and sanitation training) for the communities receiving that water. Which means it makes it into clean jerry cans, is paired with proper hand washing, used for cleaning food, and yields maximum impact in homes, schools, health clinics and trading centres.
When clean water is delivered the right way, we know through data that it is making an impact. We’re relying on more than just anecdotes to tell us whether the job has been done well, and we’re investing for the long haul rather than a short term “taps turn on” moment.
When clean water is delivered the right way, it’s done with Acts for Water.
Meet the Leadership
Reimagining a more resilient future - with you.
For over 30 years now, people like you have been partnering with Ugandan communities to see people thrive through the elimination of water poverty. We’ve seen hundreds of thousands of lives changed from something so simple as clean water, right from a tap.
We are at a critical moment for our organization. One in which we get to take the past thirty years worth of resources, learnings and gifts and leverage them in a way that produces tremendous change. Today, we have a chance to be bold in a way that very few water charities have ever done before - by focusing on sustainable systems, empowering healthy communities and building a thriving Uganda: together.
We’re inviting you into something bigger: a future filled with even more lives transformed through clean water - in a way never been done before. We can’t do it without you. We’re raising more than 4.5 million dollars over the next 4 years to see us become the most resilient water charity in the world, to see the end of kids walking for miles for water because of broken promises, and to see a thriving, self-sustaining water charity in Uganda. With Acts for Water, your gift will go further. Please join us today.
Jeffrey Golby
CEO
Richard Musinguzi
Programs Manager
Ed Brett
Board Chair
A Local Solution to a Global Problem
Our method of delivering clean water wrapped in the unique training approach we’ve developed is our (not so) secret sauce. It is highly scalable, sustainable and has an extremely low, ongoing maintenance cost. Our small team in Canada partners with a local Ugandan staff of 21 who then recruit hundreds of volunteers from the benefitting villages to see clean water flow.
Our unique process produces lasting change.
With this process and our 30 years of infrastructure already in the ground in Uganda, we believe we are uniquely positioned in a way that is unlike any other charity, to not just transform the lives of tens of thousands of Ugandans in the next few years, but also to create a blueprint for the sector itself to follow in the years to come.
Please join us in creating a future full of resilient water opportunities.
across Uganda
spread out across South Western Uganda
building clean water systems. Our oldest project is still flowing clean water to tens of thousands!
in Canada
in Uganda
Our Blueprint for Resilience
Build Sustainable Systems
We invest new technology into old systems so they can reach new communities, and have the capacity to meet the growing population of the area for generations to come. We will also extend these systems upwards to reach brand new communities while working in these regions - giving more leverage out of the existing infrastructure! When we do build systems, we do it with slightly more expensive infrastructure that is proven to last.
Empower Healthy Communities
To ensure 100% of the water reaches 100% of the impact it’s designed to create, we invest heavily into teaching hygiene and sanitation essentials. We partner with schools to equip the kids with the latrines and sanitation training they need to influence their community.
Partner with a Thriving Uganda
We provide our water solution to other charities in need to help scale our sustainable water system via a social enterprise model. This allows more to benefit from a sustainable, reliable water system, reduces our dependency on donations, and allows Uganda to thrive.
Pillar One: Building and Reinforcing Sustainable Systems
Taking one of the most sustainable ways to deliver clean water in the world and making it even better.
Our oldest systems are still flowing water to tens of thousands of people. By investing a modest amount of new technology into our legacy systems, we can expand their range to previously unreached regions and widen their capacity to meet the existing population demands, while also extending their life span for future generations to enjoy. Where we need to build systems to reach communities out of range, we’ll only build infrastructure that has a slightly higher upfront cost but has the best track record for sustainability and resilience.
For the next 5 years, we will spend an extended period of time investing heavily into the past to maximize 30 years worth of Gravity Flow Systems people like you have helped us put into Uganda. These systems will be extended onto, built up and reinforced to serve thousands more for generations to come at a relatively low cost compared to building brand new systems.
"What good is an abandoned water system or a failed sanitation facility in your community? Globally, diarrhoeal disease leads to 1 in 9 child deaths, yet every single $1 invested in water and hygiene training yields an average return of $25.5. To achieve sustainable development, the onus is on us to partner together with communities for the long term, mobilize available resources to develop capacities and resilience of these communities to escape water poverty without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
Rawlings Akanyama
Engineer, Program Support
15 previously built systems to receive technology infrastructure upgrades to extend their lifespan for generations to come
8 previously built systems to be candidates for system extensions to reach new communities previously unserved by the current systems
3 new systems built in remote communities
Over 50,000 people will be served with clean, safe water: for life
Pillar Two: Empowering Healthy Communities
Enabling 100% of the clean water to reach 100% of its potential.
While we are building sustainable systems we’ll spend an extended period in these communities to upgrade the community knowledge around hygiene and sanitation so the water can truly reach 100% of its potential. We partner with schools to equip the children with latrines and the sanitation training they need to influence behaviour in their communities. We build a map of all the stakeholders and users of the water system and create a governance system and fee paying structure so that this infrastructure can be supported long after we’re gone.
For the next 5 years our primary focus will be on investing into upgrading the hygiene and sanitation knowledge of the next generation of water users to ensure healthy communities for years to come. While doing this, we will be building clean, safe latrines for the schools and teaching the community how to best govern and maintain the water systems they are responsible for.
“When you teach an illiterate woman in a poor community the importance of handwashing, you equip her to keep her family healthy for a lifetime. Another old African proverb states that when you teach a woman, you impact a village! It is not necessary to change the material wealth of a woman nor her community to have a profound impact on their lives. Equip her with the knowledge and skills that she needs to change her own living conditions, and she will teach the rest of the village how to raise up their standard of living. Teach them now, and they will prosper tomorrow. This is the importance of investing in healthy communities!"
Tracey DeGraaf
Director of International Programs
Pillar Three: Partnering with a Thriving Uganda
Partnering together for lasting change.
We can scale our sustainable water delivery solution to create a greater impact across Uganda while reducing our dependence as a charity on donations. It’s our intent to offer our Gravity Flow System to charities in need of a sustainable water solution. This social enterprise model is a viable way for us to reach more communities while earning revenue and decreasing our dependence on donations. We believe it’s the future of charity.
For the next 5 years our primary focus will be on scaling up our social enterprise model through partnerships as we believe there is incredible demand and potential amongst our team of highly experienced, trained professionals.
An Invitation
With your support, in the next five years we can transform the lives of over 100,000 people in a radically comprehensive, more sustainable, holistic way than we’ve ever done before. To give this figure some context, it’s twice the rate at which we have previously served people in the past 30 years, mainly because we have the most incredible foundation to build on as one of Canada’s oldest water charities - a foundation that so many of you helped us build.
You can help us lead into the future, by leaning into our past to provide clean water and empower people with the hygiene essentials critical to building vibrant communities. This blueprint will not only transform so many in Uganda, but we know it can help transform a sector in need of a sustainability revolution as well.
We are seeking to raise $4.5 million dollars over the next 5 years to fulfill this vision.
I’d like to invite you to consider a multi-year pledge towards this bold initiative. Just as we’re building resilience in Uganda, we’re building resilience into our Canadian operations as well. A multi-year pledge will: reduce our fundraising costs, make sure we can plan sustainably and commit to walking alongside these communities - for the long haul.
I look forward to partnering with you as we journey towards a better way to provide clean water to people in desperate need.
Jeff Golby
CEO | Acts for Water
A Better Way to Give Clean Water
Building sustainable systems, and empowering healthy communities for a thriving Uganda.
Please join us in this historic four year effort to Give Water and Grow Resilience like never before.
Contact Jeff Golby about giving opportunities today.
E | [email protected] C | 604-765-3001
Pledge Now
We want to partner with you on a better way of bringing clean water to those in desperate need.
Join us in this historic effort by contacting us today. Leave your information here and Jeff Golby will be in touch right away to discuss with you how to best join in on this exciting project.