The global network of Blue Communities is growing day by day. Last month, three African organizations became the first on the content to receive the Blue Communities designation. We welcome these communities and congratulate them on their landmark achievement!
The Network of Water Rights Initiative, Nigeria
The Network of Water Rights Initiative (NEWARI) is made up of more than 20 grassroots organizations focused on enhancing access to safe, clean water, sanitation, and hygiene services in Nigeria through a human rights and responsibility-based approach.
In Nigeria, the group writes, “the rights of millions of people who do not have access to clean drinking water or safe toilet in their homes, are daily violated. These people go through the daily ordeals and hardship of getting access to clean drinking water whilst faced with the dangers of practicing open defecation.”
The Network focuses on implementing innovative strategies to improve access to clean drinking water, safe sanitation and hygiene services for the underserved.
The Ecumenical Water Network Africa
The Ecumenical Water Network Africa (EWNA) of the World Council of Churches has its headquarter in Ibadan, Nigeria, and runs the program ‘Voices for Water Justice’ in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and South Africa, with an additional in presence in Togo and Gambia.
EWNA’s mission is to address pressing water accessibility challenges, achieve the constitutional recognition of water as a human right, and to tackle the environmental threats to water in the face of privatization.
As a Blue Community, the group promises to galvanize churches, communities, and the broader public to resist water privatization and retain water as a public good.
Réseau Ecole RadioChico, Mali
Réseau Ecole RadioChico is a project serving Mali and neighbouring countries in French-speaking Africa. It is supported by the non-profit organization RadioChico Switzerland, which trains young people in the field of radio.
In Mali, the project involves working with dozens of children to teach them about the importance of water and its preservation.
Here’s how program ambassador Souleymane Guindo describes the group’s work:
“With the children of the RadioChico Mali school, we take action through small steps rather than speeches. Our small steps consist in planting plants and vegetables. Then the children will understand that only water can make trees and vegetables grow and give us fruit. So the importance of water is well remembered by the children and by everyone. I’m more than ever happy to be a member of this community and finally contribute to a world with clean drinking water for all living beings with my children from the RadioChico Mali school. And to help nature conserve this precious resource, water. Without water, there is no life.”
More voices from the Ecole RadioChico Mali network
For more information on Blue Communities go to blueplanetproject.net/
