Virtual Panel: Water Rights are Women’s Rights

When: Tuesday, March 8th, 2022 | 11am CST

Water scarcity disproportionately affects women and girls around the world. This International Women’s Day, hear from four women working in the social impact and water sectors making incredible impact. These experts have seen and know the importance of clean water, and through their work have made significant impact in areas such as education, food security, climate change adaptation, among many others. On this virtual panel, learn from these inspiring leaders as they share their first-hand stories of the many ways water affects women, and how you can take action to support women globally.

Panelists

Sarah Evans

CEO, Well Beyond & Founder, Well Aware

Co-founder and CEO of Well Beyond, a social enterprise providing expertise and tools to organizations and governments on water development and health initiatives.

Founder and Chair of Well Aware, an international nonprofit that funds and implements clean water systems for impoverished communities in Africa. Well Aware is known for its sustainability model in building lasting water systems with high impact.

Evans has worked to change the way water projects are executed and managed in developing regions of the world. She has built a team of staff and volunteers who implement and advise on projects that are realistic and lasting through strategic partnerships, true community involvement and empowerment, hygiene and sanitation education, and impact measurement.

Under her leadership, Well Aware’s reputation for project success (100% vs 40%

industry average) and cost effectiveness (averaging $15 per person for decades) has prompted numerous collaborations with other NGO’s worldwide to guide their water infrastructure projects. Evans and her teams work with the great potential that already exists in struggling communities while catalyzing development through access to clean water.

Mesret Endale

Project Associate, Well Aware

Mesret is a 5th-year student at Egerton University pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Water and Environmental Engineering. Mesret joined Well Aware as a Project Intern in 2020 and is now working for Well Aware in a full-time capacity as Project Associate. She has proven a vital part of our team. She has helped design our water projects, train partner communities on system maintenance, conduct site visits, and report on project progress and actions needed.

She is from a community called Marsabit, in the Northern part of Kenya, where she has experienced firsthand the challenges that come with scarcity of water and other resources.

“I understand what it means to go without water or walking for miles in search of water and coming back with none. Being a change to these communities is my drive.”

Doris Kaberia

Independent Consultant & Founding Partner, Basics Africa Limited

Doris is an accomplished development professional/executive with (20) years’ extensive experience in program design/grant writing, fundraising and resource mobilization. She posses practical experience in leading the design and managing programs funded by multiple donors such as USAID, SDC, OFDA, ECHO, DANIDA, EU, AUSAID, DFID, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Howard Buffet Foundation, Coca Cola Africa Foundation, Vitol Foundation and Proctor and Gamble among others. Doris is a strong believer that Trust, Relationship and partnership are the key drivers of economic prosperity. These three drivers have been instrumental in her 20 years successful career while facilitating collective impact, transformative and long lasting changes to development challenges.

Until May 2021, Doris has worked with multiple International NGO’s including Millennium Water Alliance as a Chief of Party and Kenya Programs Director, CARE Kenya as a Livelihoods sector Manager, Save the Children UK as the Food security and Livelihoods Coordinator and Make a Mark Foundation (USA) as a development Coordinator.

An Horticulturist trained from Egerton University Kenya, Doris possesses a masters in Natural Resources from University of Wisconsin Stevens Point (USA) and a Post graduate diploma in community based adaptation to climate change from centre for sustainable development.

Jess Danforth

Founder & Executive Director of The Leo Project

Jess Danforth is the Founder and Executive Director of The Leo Project, a 501c3 organization based in Nanyuki, Kenya. Prior to her time in East Africa, she worked as an account manager at Zenefits, in San Francisco, California. She previously held positions as an associate at Fidelity Investments and as an analyst for a Boston-based venture capital firm. Jess received her undergraduate degree from Boston College and, most recently, completed the GHDI program at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Jess believes that equitable access to education and affordable healthcare is a human right and such is the impetus behind The Leo Project.