By Julie Marks | Grants and Communications Writer
While project implementation is always a primary focus for Splash, our attention is turning to efforts that will also strengthen the local capacity and shift the cultural norms that drive behavior around water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) in Ethiopia.
Since 2008, Splash has been building a strong, local team in Addis Ababa, collaborating with the Addis Ababa Education Bureau and other regional actors to strengthen partnerships and align goals with existing government priorities and resources. While keeping our ethos intact and our vision of ensuring clean water, clean hands, and clean toilets at every public school in Addis Ababa, Splash has been honing in on strategic planning for local capacity building, sustainability, and exit.
Our capacity building strategy has been creating local jobs and enabling local owners to learn how to maintain and repair the modern filtration technology introduced by Splash. In Ethiopia, Splash projects are developing the technical skills of plumbers, builders, teachers, school administrators, and other local partner agencies. In addition, our projects are requiring schools to improve financial management practices for ongoing monitoring and maintenance of WASH infrastructure.
Confirming local buy-in has been central to our sustainability strategy. We've been working closely with school administrators and local governmental officials every step of the way to verify our WASH solutions are contextually practical and culturally appropriate.
We’ve learned that no single organization can or should be tasked with the full undertaking of this project. Taking a "coalition approach" allows Splash to secure strategic partnerships that establish long-term financial management of all WASH projects, ensuring the infrastructure we install today will remain functional and well maintained for generations of kids into the future.
Splash is immensely grateful for the collaborative support of our partners and the astounding generosity of our donors as we work every day to ensure kids in Ethiopia have safe water today, tomorrow, and forever.
Thank you for giving clean water, clean hands, and clean toilets to kids in Ethiopia. Thank you for giving to Splash!
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