Stronger Together: How Partnership Powers Lasting Change

Clean water systems don’t exist because of one organisation, one donor, or one solution. They are built through partnership - when people and organisations choose to share responsibility, combine strengths, and work toward a future where communities can thrive.

That idea sits at the heart of International Development Week 2026, themed Prosperity through Partnership. From February 1 to 7, IDW highlights Canada’s role in reducing global poverty, supporting sustainable development, and advancing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

Across Canada, organisations and communities are coming together to explore how global challenges connect to local action. For Acts for Water, this is more than a theme. It’s a lived reality. Every water system, every sanitation program, and every community transformation exists because partners chose to work together.

Prosperity doesn’t happen alone. It grows when partnership leads the way.

Different Partners. One Shared Mission.

Over the years, Acts for Water has been strengthened by partners who support the mission in different, meaningful ways. Each partnership plays a distinct role in helping clean water flow and last for generations.

Social Responsibility Partners

Some partners choose to make clean water part of how they give back. Our Social Responsibility Partners support Acts for Water as part of their commitment to doing good. By giving a portion of their revenue, speaking up, and sharing about our work, they use their platforms to help more people get access to clean water.

These partnerships extend impact far beyond a single donation - inviting customers, staff, and communities into the mission.

Take Santevia, for instance, a Canadian, family-run water filtration company that believes healthy water should be available to everyone.

Through their Santevia Gives Back program, every Santevia filtration system sold translates into 100 days of clean drinking water for people living in water poverty in Uganda. Their ambitious goal is to provide 100,000 years of clean water by 2030, with 100% of these donations going directly to clean water infrastructure.

Santevia’s commitment doesn’t just deliver funding, it brings awareness of water poverty to homes around the world, connecting everyday choices at the kitchen table with real-life transformation in communities without safe water.

Funding Partners

Long-term water solutions require long-term vision. Funding Partners, including corporate supporters and family foundations, provide essential financial backing that allows Acts to plan responsibly, grow sustainably, and respond where the need is greatest.

Their generosity enables multi-year projects, regional expansion, and investments in systems that serve communities for generations.

For instance, our funding partners have helped us bring clean water, safe latrines, and hygiene education to communities that span Southwestern Uganda, benefiting over 97,000 people in 2025. Funding partners like foundations accelerate progress and bring long-term change within reach.

Program Partners

Clean water is about more than infrastructure. It’s about health, dignity, and behaviour change.

Program Partners work alongside ACTS on the ground, bringing specialised expertise and local presence to holistically meet community needs. These partnerships ensure projects are technically sound and impactful.

Thrive for Good, a Canadian NGO, is one such partner working alongside ACTS to strengthen health through nutrition, improving resilience in the communities we serve.

In October 2023, ACTS and Thrive for Good launched Life Gardens, a pilot initiative that equips families with knowledge, simple tools, and starter seeds to grow nutritious foods and medicinal plants. The goal: healthier diets, improved well-being, and new opportunities for income.

One year later, the gardens are flourishing. Families are eating better and gaining greater choice and confidence. As one community member shared, “With this garden now, we can choose what to eat and when to eat it.”

Mission-Aligned Partners

Some partners go further, walking with us across every part of the journey. Mission-Aligned Partners combine financial support, meaningful engagement, and shared belief in the mission. They are engaged volunteers who share their skills, stand alongside us, and walk with us in advancing the mission of giving people access to clean water.

Rotarians, a global network of leaders guided by Service Above Self, have joined us in advancing WASH in southwestern Uganda, helping thousands of people gain access to safe water and improved sanitation. Together, we’re turning shared commitment into lasting impact.

They are strategically engaged with us and actively engage with our team on the ground to see the impact and better understand the communities we serve.

Why Partnership Matters

Partnerships are at the heart of our work. By joining forces, Acts can leverage resources to tackle complex development challenges and scale impact, while keeping communities front and center.

As we mark International Development Week 2026, we celebrate every partner who has chosen to walk with us.

Because when we work together, impact multiplies.

And clean water flows further, faster, and for longer.

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