Water for Every Child: An Inspiring Visit to Sierra Leone
On August 4 – 6, 2025, World Vision International Sierra Leone welcomed Madam Parvin Ngala, Global WASH Director at World Vision, on a mission to witness how water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions are transforming lives.
In the bustling East End of Freetown, Madam Ngala visited Kissy, once a community without safe water, where girls risked danger to fetch it late at night. Today, thanks to a solar-powered water system built in partnership with the Freetown City Council and funded by the Africa Heineken Foundation, over 3,000 people access clean water from 12 tap stands, with lighting for safety and a trained committee ensuring sustainability.
Further uphill in Calaba Town’s Kola Tree community, she toured a rehabilitated maternal and child health post with a solar-mechanised borehole, now serving more than 15,000 people, including school children. Here, the story of change began with women’s voices, a plea for land to build a clinic and a chief’s courageous decision to donate it. World Vision built on this foundation, ensuring clean water and sanitary facilities are now saving lives.
In Koribondo Village, Southern Sierra Leone, Madam Ngala listened intently as children shared how life at their school was once characterised by thirst and hardship. Without water, girls often missed classes during their menstrual periods, boys skipped school to search for water, and the community faced open defecation. Today, the situation has changed. A solar-powered borehole installed by World Vision now serves both the community and the school, where sex-separated latrines designed to be accessible for children with disabilities and equipped for girls during menstruation have brought dignity, safety, and better attendance. 
Madam Ngala also met with Dr. Sao Kpato Hannah Macarthy, Sierra Leone’s Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, reaffirming commitments to expand equitable access to clean water, enhance hygiene education, and increase sustainable WASH solutions through robust partnerships.
Reflecting on her visit, Madam Ngala shared:
"True power lies in communities. Our role is not to deliver transformation, but to build on what communities already know, value, and initiate — and to step back, letting them lead their own future."
Her visit, accompanied by Dr. Fungai Sexon Makoni, Senior WASH Director of Operations, Godfrey Mawaa, West Africa Regional WASH & Climate Resilience Director, and Mannah Josiah, the Strategy and Programs Director of World Vision International Sierra Leone, was a powerful reminder that lasting change begins with community action, strengthened by collaboration, and sustained through shared vision, ensuring #WaterForEveryChild.
