Without safely managed water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services, women and girls are more vulnerable to abuse, attack and ill-health, affecting their ability to study, work and live in dignity. Improvements to WASH at home, school, work and in public spaces support gender equity.
Despite COVID-19 putting the spotlight on the importance of hand hygiene to prevent the spread of disease, three billion people worldwide, including hundreds of millions of school-going children, do not have access to hand washing facilities with soap. People living in rural areas, urban slums, disaster-prone areas and low-income countries are the most vulnerable and the most affected.
Over 700 children in South Sudan under age 5 die every day of diarrheal diseases due to lack of appropriate WASH services. In areas of conflict, children are nearly 20 times more likely to die from diarrheal disease than from the conflict itself.
VARD is working with donors and partners to create more clean drinking water source in South Sudan. VARD is also working with donors and partners construction of more wash facilities together with hygiene training and community behavior change.
