What's Happening

By Ciara Feehely, Head of Communications and Fundraising for Vita Impact Fund
Introduction by Sister Marilín M. Llanes, OP, Director Portfolio Advisory Board

The featured organization this month is Vita Green Impact (Vita), an Irish overseas development agency that has worked in eastern and southern Africa for nearly 30 years to deliver sustainable energy, water, and forestry solutions to rural communities facing poverty and climate related challenges. Its programs aim to improve health and livelihoods – especially for women and girls – by expanding access to clean energy and safe water.

On March 26, 2026, members of the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Portfolio Advisory Board (PAB) members approved a loan request from Vita, first-time loan recipient. Vita is committed to supporting women and their families with essential services leading to sustainable livelihoods. 

Vita’s mission-driven focus is well aligned with the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Enactment on Women as it seeks “to attain gender equality and women’s full and equal participation and decision-making in Church and society.” 

Ciara Feehely, Head of Communications and Fundraising, shares a story of how Vita’s work ethos of By Women, With Women, For Women transformed the life of an Ethiopian woman and community.  

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In Halo Kebele, a remote village in Ethiopia’s Amhara Region, Tenaye Yisak begins each morning with a sense of relief she once thought impossible. For years, her days were shaped by a single, unending burden: the long walk for water. Every journey meant hours spent reaching shallow wells or nearby rivers — sources she knew were unsafe, yet had no choice but to use.

“We used to walk for hours to fetch water,” she recalls. “The water was often dirty, but we had no other choice. Then we spent more hours fetching wood so we could boil the water and make it clean. My back was always hurting.”

For Tenaye and for thousands of women across Ethiopia, water has never been just a resource. It has been a weight carried on the back, a risk taken for the sake of thirsty children, a sacrifice repeated daily. Drought, conflict, and a long history of underinvestment have left tens of millions of people without safe drinking water. Broken pumps have stood like silent reminders of promises unfulfilled, forcing families – especially women and girls – to walk long distances to collect water that was as dangerous as it was essential.

Into this difficult landscape has come a new kind of hope, one rooted in partnership and in the dignity of local leadership. Through the Vita Green Impact Fund partners, 1,346 broken water pumps have been repaired, bringing clean water to 485,000 people. Working under the ethos of By Women, With Women, For Women, the Fund has helped establish and train 1,346 local WASH Committees, which focus on promoting women into leadership roles. Their stewardship ensures that each water point is cared for, maintained and protected for the long term.

The impact reaches far beyond convenience. It restores time, precious hours that women like Tenaye can now dedicate to family, farming, community life, and generating additional income. It restores health, sparing children the illnesses once caused by contaminated rivers. And it restores dignity, allowing women to step forward not only as beneficiaries, but as leaders.

For women like Tenaye, the change is nothing short of transformative. “Now, I can collect clean water just a few minutes from my home. My children are healthier. Also, I have more time. Before, fetching water and the wood to boil it and clean it was the main focus of my day. I can see the water pump from my own front door and it is already clean water. I love having more time to do things and not carrying these heavy water buckets and bales of wood for long distances. This is a very happy time for me!”

Her joy speaks to a deeper truth echoed across Catholic social teaching: when women flourish, families flourish; when families flourish, communities grow strong; when communities grow strong, hope becomes tangible.

In Halo Kebele and across South Gondar, clean water is doing more than quenching thirst. It is restoring the dignity of women one restored water pump at a time.

 

Caption for feature photo at top: Tenaye Yisak, of the village of Halo Kebele in Ethiopa, poses with a repaired water pump that has made access to water so much easier for the women in her village.