THE UNITY HOUSE
A SPACE FOR WOMEN CREATES
Opportunity for equality, increased earning potential, safety and a reason to sing
Phase One Is Complete
The Unity House is a home away from home for women miners in Voi, Kenya, who leave their families to work at the mines for days or weeks at a time.
Phase One of the Unity House is complete. A shipping container has been converted into a home with a long patio and two separate sleeping rooms, one for each of the women's mining cooperatives. Bunk beds have been built, and the house is ready for the women to move in.
To make the house fully livable, we need to finish Phase Two: a sanitation house with water retention, a kitchen, toilets and a shower.
Clean Water and Sanitation Are a Basic Right
Every woman deserves the dignity of clean water and sanitation. In rural mining areas, women often live and work without safe water, private toilets or a place to wash. This affects their health, their safety and their ability to earn a living.
The United Nations recognizes access to safe water and sanitation as a human right, and it is central to gender equity. When women have safe and private facilities, they spend less time collecting water, face lower risk of harassment and violence, and can take part fully in work and community life.
What's the need?
Women miners in Voi, Kenya leave their families for two weeks to a month at a time to work at mine sites inside the national park. These sites have no water or sanitation. Without bathrooms or a secure place to stay, women miners are exposed to health risks and to gender based violence
Safe places for women miners, with private toilets, showers and clean water, are a basic requirement for safe living and working conditions.
What's the impact?
The Unity House provides a permanent, women only space at the mines. With Phase Two complete, the women will have clean water, toilets, a shower and a kitchen. Trunks on the front porch will hold hard hats for every woman.
The house will also serve as a gathering place where women can discuss fighting gender based violence, securing equal pay and coming together to form a women only mining cooperative.
What are the goals?
Complete the Phase Two sanitation house, with a fundraising goal of $10,165.
Provide clean water, toilets, a shower and a kitchen for women miners.
Supply hard hats for every woman at the house.
Create a safe place for women to gather, address gender based violence and advocate for equal pay.
Support the formation of a women only mining cooperative.
Advance UN Sustainable Development Goal 5: Gender Equality and Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation.
Complete Phase Two
Goal: $10,165 to complete the sanitation house.
Every contribution brings the women of the Unity House closer to clean water, safety and equity.
