Hold Each Other

Date the team formed: 2013

Number of team members: 30

Total number of beneficiaries: 6756 

Amount Funded:$7593

Team Hold Each Other was launched in 2016 to provide clean water to 4656 people. Hold Each Other is a team of 22 members working to address the issue of gender-based violence resulting from water collection, including children being abused at water access points, missing school, dropping out of school, and the trigger of domestic violence from long water collection times and poor hygiene. The team has also been committed to the issue of family planning and reproductive health education.

Hold Each Other received its second award in August from Global Grassroots for their expansion venture and have purchased land for a new water access point. This expansion project will expand their pipeline 1.5 km away to Kanyinya community, Rutunga Sector, Gasabo District, to serve approximately 724 households (2896 people). In this area is a neighborhood of vulnerable people (w’abatishoboye), many of whom are old and suffer from chronic illness, and who depend on an untreated, downhill spring. It requires a 1.5-hour journey for a normal healthy person to collect water, making the water source completely inaccessible for these older residents. Instead, they are forced to beg from their neighbors when they cannot collect rainwater. The team will install a water access point to ensure these most vulnerable people can pay what they can on a sliding scale. Additionally, Hold Each Other will select 80 couples for a 2-day training on hygiene and water treatment, who will then volunteer to teach others. They will also educate on the importance of school to prevent children from being refused for lack of water.

Team Photographs