Water is Life. "Maji ni uhai" in KiSwahili. More than 60% of all people living in rural areas throughout Sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to safe water. The lack of sanitation and safe drinking water causes untold deaths for African children under the age of five.

Economic strengthening programs that benefit OVC can take many forms, and one such form is that Global Alliance for Africa works in partnership with local communities to organize women's cooperatives and community-based organizations around safe water wells, bore holes, ferrous-cement water containers, water systems for schools and communities in semi-arid areas, municipal water sites, etc., to build the capacities of local communities so that they can provide sustantiable care and support for OVC.

For example, one women's cooperative in Western Kenya is comprised of over 45 women who manage the water dispersement around a safe water well for their community near Lake Victoria. Global Alliance for Africa provided the funding for the community to dig the well, and the training to maintain and manage the site. People come to the site and purchase the water for 2Ksh (less than 3 cents) per 10 litre gerry can, rather thatn walk the 12 kilometers down to the lake. The women's cooperative uses the money to maintain the water site, and any profit left over is distributed to the households that belong to the cooperative on a monthly basis. The result is that there is enough money to provide for improved nutrition, school fees and uniforms for the orphans and vulnerable children the women in this cooperative take care of and support.

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