The Gibson Foundation

The Gibson Foundation is supporting WaterAid’s programs helping deliver clean water, sanitation and hygiene education to vulnerable communities living in the Obi and Oju Local Government Areas of the east-central state of Benue in Nigeria.

Children collecting clean, safe water from a new handpump in Nigeria.

Once a thriving agricultural area, Benue now suffers from extreme poverty and high unemployment, especially apparent in Obi and Oju, amongst the very poorest areas in the state.

Diarrheal diseases and guinea worm are big problems here due to the low water and sanitation coverage. While nationally 48% of the population has access to safe water and 44% have adequate sanitation, in Obi the figures are just 12% and 9% respectively.

The result is widespread deaths due to water-related diseases, especially amongst the weakest members of society such as infants, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems due to HIV/AIDS.

With Gibson’s support WaterAid is targeting assistance to the neediest communities, who are identified using criteria developed by the communities themselves through a transparent vulnerability ranking system.

Communities once reliant on contaminated water sources, such as streams, are being given the tools and skills to construct new safe water supplies such as hand-dug wells, boreholes and rainwater harvesting structures.

For more information on corporate support of WaterAid America, please call Christina Maggi at
(212) 683-0430 or email us.

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