Horn of Africa: Tyco Emergency Funding Supports Safe Water Project in Kenya

Action Against Hunger’s partnership with Tyco International, the Clean Water Access Initiative, has made an emergency grant of $50,000 in support of a clean water project in a drought-stricken region of Kenya.

Some 3.5 million people have been declared food insecure in Kenya, with significant numbers facing catastrophic conditions after consecutive years of below-average rainfall. Tyco’s $50,000 emergency response grant will provide access to safe water for 8,000 people and improve hygiene practices for 12,000 people in Kenya’s Garbatulla District. Providing safe water is an essential component of Action Against Hunger’s efforts to address the problem of water-related illnesses which can cause malnutrition or amplify its effects.

Action Against Hunger has worked in this district for 10 years and has developed relationships with a broad range of Kenyan stakeholders. Through the Tyco-supported project, Action Against Hunger will provide water-kiosk storage tanks, repair broken water supply systems and storage facilities and train and equip local caretakers to maintain this infrastructure. In addition, needy households will be supplied with ceramic pot filters for water treatment. The project will run from September to December and includes the teaching of hygiene practices in schools and health facilities.

In July, Tyco and Action Against Hunger announced the Clean Water Access Initiative, a three-year partnership to bring clean water to people threatened by malnutrition and water-borne diseases throughout the world. One component of the partnership involves supporting projects that enable Action Against Hunger to work quickly and effectively to address humanitarian relief needs that result from natural disasters.

Tyco is dedicating more than $2 million over the next three years to the initiative. In addition to supporting emergency relief, capacity-building projects will draw on the extensive product portfolio of Tyco’s flow control business and the expertise of flow control employees in designing and delivering water distribution systems for communities in need.

Kenya is one of more than 40 countries in which Action Against Hunger operates. Each year, its projects benefit some 5 million people throughout the world.

About the Clean Water Access Initiative