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Clean water for kids
PROVINGIT OVERVIEW
It would be easy to assume our work is complete once clean water flows.
When a child's right installs a water system, we do so with two key commitments in place: First, we will be closely involved for ten years, monitoring ongoing use and staying responsive for service needs. Second, we will work with local leadership so they will be prepared to oversee operations, beginning in the eleventh year.
Illustrating Impact
When donor dollars go to work, each one serves a critical purpose. Through this database - ProvingIt - We show precisely where contributions are placed to use, as well as relevant details of each local site (like the number of children served, water quality tests before and after, and monitoring findings) over time.
Your impact is illustrated here several-fold:
When you make a donation, you trust that it will make a difference. But the proof is in the future. Through this tool, we give you a way to watch what your gifts make possible.
Your impact is illustrated here several-fold:
- How hygiene education programs increase the benefit of safe drinking water
- Respectful photographs of the children served
- Our maintenance record
- Where we failed, and what we have learned
- Any reported health effects
- True costs (even if they vary from our original estimates)
When you make a donation, you trust that it will make a difference. But the proof is in the future. Through this tool, we give you a way to watch what your gifts make possible.
CONTINUOUS REPORTING
We keep meticulous records. Below are examples of the kinds of reports you can access on ProvingIt to see the ongoing impact of your giving. Whether maintenance reports, status of inventory for spare parts, updates on hygiene education, or stories of the impact on the children served, you can find it here on ProvingIt.
MONITORING & EVALUATION
The team at a child's right doesn't believe it's enough to just install a water purification system and walk away. Our goal is for the water to taste just as good on day 3,000 as it did on day one. In this section, you will find data reflecting service calls, problems, performance measures, and even failures. We show you not only what is observed, but also what we learned and did about it.
Left: Seven months into our project at the Kanti Children's Hospital, Nepal's largest pediatric hospital, we had an unforeseen influx of iron which rendered the water undrinkable. Although we hate to see this, we also feel strongly that anything diminishing water quality or system effectiveness should be made public.
Right: Once the system was back online we posted accordingly. We monitor sites with a high frequency and feel compelled to show the good and the bad at every step.
Right: Once the system was back online we posted accordingly. We monitor sites with a high frequency and feel compelled to show the good and the bad at every step.
WATER QUALITY TESTS
It all comes down to this: sustainably safe water. Therefore, we test for water quality before and after, in every case. In each country served, we rely on independent, highly reputable labs, in pursuit of the greatest degree of verification we can assure. In addition to initial pre- and post-test, a child's right tests water quality at annual intervals. These test results will all go live on the database.
Left: Staff in China check all parts of our system during water testing.
Right: Cambodia staff collect water samples at an orphanage, during the initial site visit, to test water quality prior to our intervention.
Right: Cambodia staff collect water samples at an orphanage, during the initial site visit, to test water quality prior to our intervention.
HYGIENE EDUCATION
To truly improve health outcomes, there is a crucial partnership: safe water and clean hands. The water systems provided by a child’s right purify so much water that there is enough for both drinking and hand washing. (But we can’t assume kids will wash their hands just because we told them to!)
Through custom-built programs that respect the local culture of the children, we teach the fundamentals of hygiene, build peer-to-peer support for reinforcement, and then report on how it is going and what the impact has been.
Through custom-built programs that respect the local culture of the children, we teach the fundamentals of hygiene, build peer-to-peer support for reinforcement, and then report on how it is going and what the impact has been.
COSTS
We estimate costs, and forecast financial needs, on a per-site basis. Expenses are different in each country, and vary among sites, based on actual needs on the ground. Through this ProvingIt tracking report, true costs are displayed. Where we came in under budget, we say so. And where we didn’t, we do so as well. An honest conversation about money is important to us.
Upper Left: Local workers construct water stations
Lower Left: Systems are serviced, when needed, across ten years
Right: A memorandum of agreement is signed, reinforcing explicit partnership agreements (e.g., timely reporting of problems, participating financially in the solution, and being committed to encouraging the children to use water with safe practices)
Lower Left: Systems are serviced, when needed, across ten years
Right: A memorandum of agreement is signed, reinforcing explicit partnership agreements (e.g., timely reporting of problems, participating financially in the solution, and being committed to encouraging the children to use water with safe practices)
SPARE PARTS
The a child's right model allows for all replacement parts – for ten years – to be delivered up front. They are then held in-stock, from the point of initial installation. A chronic challenge facing all international charitable organizations is that of assuring supply chains stay in force. Across the sector, experts anticipate that all water solutions will fail, at some point. So the question is not “Did you fail?” but “How did you respond, and how quickly?” This section speaks to that question.
HEALTH DATA
Wherever site-specific health data is available for the children served, it is included here. a child's right is actively seeking strategic partnerships with global health leaders in hopes of truly scaling up knowledge on health performance indicators. For the time being, we rely on available reports from the schools and orphanages.
CHANGE OVER TIME
Measuring our performance, according to the categories above, allows a child's right to truly do our very best work:
- We see how we're doing and can can make course-corrections, where needed
- We watch water quality for ten years – because we believe it is that important
- We evaluate our hygiene education program for effectiveness
- We keep control of costs, and we display them openly
- We track our inventory of spare parts, to assure there are no gaps in service
