Women in rural Kenya face extraordinary challenges. They lack access to stable employment, clean water, and electricity. Path From Poverty equips and empowers women so that they can lift themselves out of poverty. We partner with women's groups to provide business and leadership training, access to clean water and solar power, and educational scholarships for girls.
The impact of Path From Poverty's work is seen in solutions to tangible problems like access to clean water and sustainable energy for entire families. Through our programs, the earning capacity of women striving to lift themselves and their families out of poverty is increased. But the impact doesn't stop there. In the process leaders are created, entrepreneurs are born, and groups of women are becoming powerful agents for change in their communities.
Water, Solar, & Education
Dirty water is the world's greatest single killer. Contaminated water kills more Kenyans than malaria and HIV/Aids combined. 5,000 children under the age of five die every day in Africa due to dirty water, from just one water-borne disease, diarrhea. And not just children suffer. At any one time, half the inhabitants of developing countries are ill with diseases associated with dirty water and poor sanitation.
Path From Poverty is tackling this issue head-on by providing rainwater catchment tanks that sit right outside a women's home, bringing clean, safe water to her and her family. See how this sustainable solution is bringing opportunity and hope to Dorothy, one of Path From Poverty's water tank owners.
In Africa alone, women spend 40 billion hours a year walking for water.
With unclean water sources often miles from villages, woman and girls are forced to spend hours each day simply finding and transporting water. Surveys from 45 developing countries show that in almost two-thirds of households without a drinking water source on the premises, it is women and girls who collect water.
The daily average for a Kenya woman is 4-6 hours of walking for clean water.The typical container used for water collection in Africa, the jerry can, weighs over 40 pounds when it's completely full. With much of one's day already consumed by meeting basic needs, there isn't time for much else. The hours lost to gathering water are often the difference between the time to do a trade and earn a living and not.
Path From Poverty works to end this daily hardship and is putting a stop to girls lives being at risk by providing clean, safe water at the homes of women and their families. Path From Poverty is changing lives and giving back the time lost fetching water so girls can go to school and women can earn much-needed income.
Lack of clean water has serious effects on students' academic performance and attendance rates. The lack of safe water can cause even the best students to lose momentum as they deal with stomach pains and diarrhea from disease and hunger.
Students miss class to fetch water, or to care for sick parents or siblings. In many places HIV/AIDS has already caused a large percentage of children to become orphans, requiring students to drop out and find work to provide food and care for younger siblings.
It is typically the responsibility of the women to fetch water thus limiting their access to both education and business opportunities. This leaves little time for education which is critical to their path out of poverty.
In Kenya, the majority of the population doesn't have electricity at home, since the country's national grid is unreliable and expensive to buy into. The alternative to electricity is kerosene - a fuel that is dangerous and expensive. Kerosene lanterns cause health problems including respiratory and eye issues. They are also a fire hazard.
Path From Poverty is providing 'light' to Kenya in more ways than one! We provide solar panels, chargers and utility packs for women's homes. On average, children in Africa spend two hours a day extra on homework when they have solar lights. This means kids have a higher chance of succeeding in school if their family has solar power.
Electricity is more than just light, it allows people to stay more connected by powering phones, radios, and televisions, as well as being a source of income generation. A small business can generate an average $150 more a year due to access to light. Read how Stella, one of Path From Poverty's solar panel owners, is using this sustainable solution to power her business.