Through our Replenish Africa Initiative (RAIN), which aims to bring safe water access and sanitation to 6 million Africans by 2020, Coca-Cola and its local bottling partner, BRALIRWA, have been working in Rwanda with development organization Water For People since 2011 to address local water issues.

Working with Water For People and other partners, we have helped provide safe water access to two schools and sanitation facilities for four schools in the Gahanga and Masaka districts of Kicukiro. In addition, 50 rainwater storage tanks with 2,500 liters of capacity each have been introduced, and 17 new tap stands in Gahanga are helping reduce the amount of time women and girls spend traveling to collect water.

These projects are credited with providing access to clean water for more than 20,000 schoolchildren and thousands of local residents, and equipping one of the most water-challenged districts with 100 percent access. Importantly, Coca-Cola funds have helped leverage local government and community contributions, signaling a sense of ownership, critical to the sustainability of the projects.

Water For People has also partnered with Coca-Cola in Latin America and the FEMSA Foundation (a Foundation funded by FEMSA – a Coca-Cola bottling partner), along with other critical implementing partners, on Lazos de Agua, or Water Links, a $12.3 million program to bring new and improved WASH programs to more than 110,000 people in some of the poorest regions of Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua over the next three years.

Water For People’s mission is simple: water for everyone, forever. The organization brings together local entrepreneurs, civil society, governments, and communities to establish creative, collaborative solutions that allow people to build and maintain their own reliable safe water systems. Water for People believes that empowering everyone transforms people’s lives by improving health and economic productivity to end the cycle of poverty. The organization designs safe water and sanitation access projects around the world with the aim of providing safe, continuous drinking water to all in need.