(ANS – Kigali) – Salesian missionaries in the community of Rukago, in the city of Kigali, the capital and largest city of Rwanda, just completed a water and sanitation project for the local Salesian school. The project was funded by Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco, and provided eight new toilets and a repair on a water tank for clean drinking water for the students.

In the Rukago community, Salesian missionaries operate primary schools, a vocational school and a parish. One of the primary school provides education to a large population of poor children from the local community. The school was in desperate need of new sanitation and safe drinking water. Prior to the repair to the water tank, students had to walk more than a mile to collect water from a hill in a swampy area.

“This project has had a great impact for our students now that they have access to better sanitation and water for washing their hands, proper hygiene and safe drinking water,” says Father Jean Paul Ruriho, PDO director of Salesians of Don Bosco Africa of the Great Lakes. “We expect this project will reduce the number of children who become sick due to lack of proper hygiene and safe water.”

Salesian missionaries also expect that this new project will help the families of the children save on medical expenses for treating children who develop water related diseases and illness due to contaminated water.

According to UN-Water, the United Nations inter-agency coordination mechanism on all freshwater related issues, 768 million people lack access to improved water sources and 2.5 billion people have no improved sanitation, worldwide. For those who have no access to clean water, water related disease is common with more than 840,000 people dying each year from water related diseases.

In addition, women and children bear the primary responsibility for water collection and walk for hours to collect drinking water—water that often proves contaminated, and seriously sickens those who consume it. Many others are unable to attend school regularly because they must spend time searching for distant wells.

In response to this crisis, Salesian Missions has made building wells and supplying fresh, clean water, a top priority for every community in every country in which Salesian missionaries work.

Salesian Missions has launched a special campaign to raise money for its Clean Water Initiative which supports water projects like this one around the globe.

Published 06/05/2015