$1,440 was provided to WaterCan to fund the construction of a "waterpoint" (a communal tap-stand connected to a main municipal water system), and the necessary sanitation and hygiene education activities for local residents in Woreda, a slum area on the northern edge of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capitol. Beneficiaries will also be trained in basic repairs and maintenance to ensure the long-term viability of the waterpoint. The tap that we funded will directly serve approximately 80 water collectors. Since each water collector does so for a family of at least four others, well over 300 Ethiopians should benefit from our contribution. In a world in which more than one billion people lack access to safe drinking water, in Ethiopia, only 24% of the population is able to obtain this life-sustaining liquid.

To date, WaterCan has supported seventy-six projects serving approximately one million people in 32 developing countries. In the mid-1990s, WaterCan adopted an approach of focusing efforts in a few countries at a time in order to make the most effective use of its limited resources. Currently WaterCan’s local partners and projects are located in Africa.

WaterCan is particularly interested in developing partnerships with indigenous Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's), identifying and organizing capacity building opportunities for these partners, and supporting knowledge networks that facilitate collaboration among local and international stakeholders in the water and sanitation sector.

Water Quotes:

'Water, like religion and ideology, has the power to move millions of people. Since the very birth of human civilization, people have moved to settle close to it. People move when there is too little of it. People move when there is too much of it. People journey down it. People write, sing and dance about it. People fight over it. And all people, everywhere and every day, need it.' - Mikhail Gorbachev, President of Green Cross International, quoted in Peter Swanson's Water: The Drop of Life, 2001

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