The Water Trust team with communities in East Africa to create sustainable, effective water, hygiene and sanitation systems.

In 2008, three longtime advocates for safe-water access founded The Water Trust: finance executives Ted Huber and Jeff Kaplan, and Andrew Pearson, director of U.K.-based Busoga Trust. Initially operated as a Busoga Trust satellite, The Water Trust is now an independent NGO with American leadership.

Their experienced field teams work on the ground in the places they serve.They build latrines. They teach hand washing and sanitary habits. They help parents understand why kids need clean water to stay healthy. They're changing behaviors, one family at a time, to help save lives. Most important, they empower people to take better care of themselves.

When you contribute, they ensure your support flows to projects that produce lasting and meaningful change. They share the details and stories behind that progress with real-time online reports. And by offering life-changing trips to Africa, made possible through top travel providers like Abercrombie & Kent, they can unite your family with the people whose futures you’re enriching.

WHAT THEY DO

Rather than just channel money overseas, they build and send their own teams into the field. Each ensures that projects like these are effective and cost-efficient for the long term.

BUILD HAND-DUG WELLS

Village partners, with guidance from one of their technicians, construct brick-lined, cement-sealed units that keep their community’s water clean. See one in action

DRILL BOREHOLE WELLS

When nature and geology prohibit hand digging, they use rigs to drill these narrower, deeper wells.

BUILD LATRINES 

They work with village and school partners to build latrines. These cost- efficient structures create a safe, healthy sanitation facility.

HOUSEHOLD WATER TREATMENTS

Working with their community partners, they determine the best ways to purify water at its points of use. Their methods include chlorination, bio-sand filtration, and ceramic filtering.

HARVEST RAINWATER 

Their simple structures capture clean rainwater that flows from roof-and-gutter systems.

PROTECT SPRINGS

In some parts of Uganda, water flows to the surface from underground. We first cement the walls of a spring to protect its water from contaminants, then build a spout. The result: a new water source for their partnering village.