CAWST Among the Top Recipients
CAWST will help save the lives of mothers, infants and children in Haiti, Africa and Asia as Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced on September 20, 2011 that the Canadian government will give $6 MM over 3 years to Calgary's innovative CAWST via the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Health project. A total of $82 MM to 28 projects in 26 countries was promised to Canadian development agencies under the Muskoka Initiative Partnership Program (MIPP), a comprehensive and integrated approach to address maternal, newborn, and child health.
Through the Muskoka Initiative and CAWST's Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Health project, more than 354,000 people, 79% women and children, in 8 countries will have improved maternal, neonatal and childhood development enabled through improved water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). With this funding, CAWST will manage and support the establishment of 8 Water and Training Expertise (WET) Centres in some of the world's most at-risk and impoverished countries: Afghanistan, Cambodia, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Haiti, Laos, Nepal and Zambia.
Out of the 28 projects announced, CAWST's Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Health project will impact the most end users in the most countries (8) and seeks to engage, educate and empower women and children on the connection between WASH and improved health. The project will strengthen the capacity of the 8 established WET Centres to implement WASH projects and deliver training in country; it's the only project to deal directly with water and sanitation linked to maternal and child health.
CAWST commends Canada's commitment to reducing mortality rates in developing countries by 2015 under the guidance of the Millennium Development Goals, and specifically linking water and sanitation to health and poverty. Through the work of CAWST, "Canada continues to play an international leadership role in improving the lives of mothers and children in developing countries," said Prime Minister Harper.
This $6MM is 75% of the funding CAWST requires to reach 20 million by 2020 with better water and sanitation. We will look to the Canadian public to support us with the remaining 25%.
