Changing lives, one backpack at a time

A woman with a WaterSafe backpack carries water back to her home alongside a donkey outfitted with additional containers.

By Connie Cheren, Rotary Club of Charlotte International, North Carolina, USA, and founder of Partners for Care

When I first traveled to Kenya in 2007, I thought it would be a short trip, an opportunity to volunteer and return home with new memories. Instead, it changed the direction of my life.

I saw children missing school because of preventable illnesses, mothers walking miles to fetch water that wasn’t even safe to drink, and communities doing everything they could to survive with very little. As a nurse and social worker, I couldn’t ignore what I saw.

That trip led to the creation of Partners for Care, an organization built on one clear mission: to change lives, one child at a time. Our vision has always been that every child in Kenya should have the opportunity to live, to have safe water, enough food, access to school, and the chance to grow up healthy and strong.

Discovering a partnership for change

Years later, I learned about WaterSafe by FPS, an innovation that immediately caught my attention. The WaterSafe backpack is a simple yet brilliant idea — a safer and more hygienic way to carry, store, and dispense water. For women and children who often carry heavy jerry cans or buckets for long distances, this backpack changes everything.

At Partners for Care, we’ve had the privilege of working alongside the WaterSafe team to bring these backpacks into Kenyan communities that need them most. We witnessed firsthand how it transforms daily life, from easing physical burdens to improving health outcomes.

Clean water, real results

One of the most powerful lessons we’ve learned came from our work in Parkishon, Marsabit County, where we partnered with local health officials to help children enrolled in a nutrition program. Many of these children were malnourished and receiving a therapeutic food meant to help them recover. Yet despite the supplements, progress was painfully slow.

It wasn’t the food that was failing them; it was the water. Families were still using unsafe water from nearby dams, and repeated illness was keeping children from healing.

That’s when we introduced WaterSafe backpacks, along with hygiene training and soap distribution. Each family received a backpack to help keep water clean from source to storage. What happened next was remarkable.

Within just three months, 10 of the 37 children whose families used the WaterSafe backpacks made a full recovery — so healthy they no longer needed to remain in the feeding program. Children who didn’t have access to clean water continued to struggle.

In total, about 27% of the children using WaterSafe backpacks recovered completely, and nearly all showed faster improvement than before. (Partners for Care Report, 2018)

Ripples of Hope

Beyond the data, it’s the personal stories that stay with me. I remember one mother who told me she no longer fears giving her children a drink. Another described how the WaterSafe backpack made carrying water easier on her back and shoulders — a small mercy that means so much when you’ve been doing it for years.

At local schools in Parkishon village, students now have clean drinking water during the day. Teachers have noticed fewer absences, and the children seem more energetic and eager to learn.

These are the ripples of change that clean water creates: one family, one classroom, one community at a time.

Shared purpose with Rotary

Rotary’s dedication to Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) aligns deeply with our work. WaterSafe isn’t just a product; it’s a movement toward dignity, health, and sustainability — values Rotary members around the world hold dear.

By joining hands across organizations, we’ve shown what’s possible when compassion meets innovation. Together, we can make safe water not just a goal, but a reality for every child.

Learn more about WaterSafe on their website. Connect with your Rotary club to support local or international water projects Connie Cheren is a nurse and social worker from Georgia, USA, and the founder of Partners for Care, a nonprofit organization committed to improving the health and well-being of children and families in Kenya. She is an active member of the Rotary Club of Charlotte International.