WATER IS A HUMAN RIGHT.
JOIN THE MUN INSTITUTE &
THIRST PROJECT IN THE FIGHT.
The Model UN Institute is working to raise $12,000 to build a well in eSwatini to provide clean drinking water to an entire community.
Contribute to the MUN Institute Thirst Project Well in eSwatini
About eSwatini & The Thirst Project
The Kingdom of eSwatini is the second-smallest country in Africa and has a population of 1.16 million total people. 59% of the population lives in poverty and depend on small-scale agriculture for their economic livelihood. The life expectancy is 60 years-old and the mortality rate of children under age five is 49/1000. According to the 2022 WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme Report, approximately 27% of the population of eSwatini still lacks basic access to clean water. eSwatini is a small country, landlocked country in Southern Africa, making the goal of reaching 100% water coverage attainable.
Thirst Project is a nonprofit organization that works with the support of young people to END the global water crisis by building freshwater wells in developing communities that need safe, clean drinking water. Why Water? Health and Sanitation: Waterborne diseases are responsible for more easily preventable young deaths a year than HIV, Malaria, and all world violence combined. Small children typically do not have strong enough immune systems to fight diseases like cholera, dysentery, or schistosomiasis. If we achieve universal access to clean water and sanitation & hygiene, we could reduce the global disease burden by 10%. Clean water also plays an incredibly critical role in effectively treating and managing HIV/AIDS in rural communities. The Kingdom of eSwatini, for example, has the single-highest-density population of HIV/AIDS in the world. For a person with HIV/AIDS, even if you have access to medical treatment or antiretroviral medication, but are still forced to drink dirty water from contaminated sources, the diseases in the water you drink will actually kill you faster than AIDS itself. Women and children spend on average six to eight hours each day walking to fetch water. The average distance that women and children in developing communities walk to fetch water is 3.75 miles. The time children spend collecting water keeps them from going to school and getting an education. Today, half of all child malnutrition is associated with unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene.
*Data sourced from the UN