26th January, 2009
Olympic Gold Medallist Visits AMREF Water and Sanitation Project in Ethiopia
This January, Olympic gold medallist Million Wolde visited AMREF’s water and sanitation project in the Kechene neighbourhood of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
A celebrated long-distance runner and Addis native, Wolde has this to say about the visit: “Kechene has a reputation as one of the city’s poorest and most densely populated areas, plagued by open sewers and poor sanitation. I was very happy to see that AMREF had partnered with the community to build public toilets, showers, and taps for gathering water.”
Wolde, who won gold in the 5000 metre race at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, toured the neighbourhood and met with AMREF staff and community leaders.
“What was striking about the project was the sense of ownership among the residents I met,” he says. “There was a real sense of optimism.”
At the outset of the project, just 15% of Kechene’s 50,000 residents had access to clean drinking water. This made them especially vulnerable to the spread of diseases such as cholera, typhoid, and diarrhoea — one of the leading causes of death in children.
With support from Diageo and Jersey Overseas, AMREF has for the past two years worked with the people of Kechene to bring clean drinking water and sanitation facilities to over 35,000 people. To date, 17 sanitation kiosks — containing showers, toilets, hand- and clothes-washing facilities, and taps — have been built.
On World Water Day (March 22nd), AMREF and Diageo will host the Water of Life Half Marathon at the Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre in Marlow, near London, to raise funds to build more facilities and provide sanitation education to Kechene residents.
Frew Teshome, AMREF Ethiopia’s communications officer, says the facilities will have economic as well as health benefits: “With clean water for drinking and proper hygienic facilities now in place, people will miss fewer days of work and school due to illness. Literacy will improve and poverty will decrease.”
AMREF’s decision to involve the community in the construction of the facilities was a strategic one. Once the project is complete, the community will have the expertise to maintain them long after AMREF has left.
“What amazes me is that the community is even able to grow vegetables now,” says Wolde. “This is great work. I congratulate AMREF and the people of Kechene.”
To find out how you can support AMREF and the Kechene project, visit www.amrefuk.org/wateroflife.
Photo: Tim Bishop/Diageo