Each year World Water Day is celebrated on March 22. For the Blood:Water Community, World Water Day is a time to both celebrate and recommit ourselves to the work of ending the water crisis.

Blood:Water isn’t just like any other organization – our model is truly unique. We partner with growth-minded community-driven organizations throughout east and southern Africa. Our partnership model includes an 8-year funding commitment with our proven organizational strengthening model that ensures sustainability long after the partnership’s end. (Join the Blood:Water Community today).

No need to take our word for it, you can hear it directly from Ephy Imbali, Founder and Executive Director of CABDA (Community Asset Building and Development Agency) in western Kenya. CABDA has been in partnership with Blood:Water since 2022.

Ephy has been working in development in Africa for over 20 years. After working for two international NGOs, she started CABDA in 2005 because she saw a need for organizations to truly be locally led and community-driven.

As a child Ephy walked long distances daily for dirty water that ended up making her mother ill. She knows first hand the struggles of her region, so she is able to identify both the resources and the needs of the community, and support them more efficiently.

Because of Ephy’s personal experience and more than two decades of development work, she knew the importance of getting communities involved. While other organizations are starting to catch on as if “community-driven” is a new approach, CABDA innovated this model and has been seeing its success for years. 

What does “community-driven” look like?

CABDA excels at getting community members involved in water projects. They have found success by involving the communities in the planning process from day one. CABDA begins the process by addressing community leaders and identifying the resources the community has to contribute to the project.

Once the community identifies the resources they are able to provide, this is built into the proposal of the project, giving the community ownership of their contribution. Using this strategy Ephy had seen the communities contribute up to 30% of the resources for some of the projects CABDA has completed. This practice also allows for community members to be involved so that once the project is completed, it can be maintained by the communities themselves ensuring sustainability.

Join the Blood:Water Community this World Water Day to invest in leaders like Ephy, and their communities. Thanks to a generous donor, your gift will be matched, $1 for $1 up to $40,000!