About SAquaSolve Rwanda
SAquaSolve Rwanda is a community-based organization expanding access to safe drinking water in underserved rural communities, beginning with its first implementation and proving ground in Gashora, Bugesera. Here is why it exists, what it believes, and who leads it.
Mission
SAquaSolve Rwanda is a community-based organization working to expand access to safe drinking water in underserved rural communities by developing and scaling solar-powered community water systems that treat non-potable surface water and distribute safe drinking water through accessible community water points.
Vision
A Rwanda where proximity to water means access to safe water — where communities living near lakes, rivers and other local water resources are never more than a short, safe distance from water they can trust.
Values
Communities are participants in designing and running the systems that serve them, not recipients of a finished product.
Water quality, site conditions and community needs are measured directly, and the evidence determines the design — not the reverse.
Safe water is a matter of health, time and dignity. SAquaSolve's work and its storytelling both reflect that.
SAquaSolve works through district, utility and regulatory structures, not around them, and builds systems intended to last well beyond initial funding.
Rwanda's water-access challenge is larger than any single organization. SAquaSolve works alongside government, communities, engineers, researchers and other water-sector actors.
Our story
2023
Through the U.S. State Department's TechGirls program, founder Sonia Irakoze created community water-conservation materials and led an early water-safety workshop in Gashora — the first seed of what would become SAquaSolve.
2026
A 2026 Davis Projects for Peace award formalized the work into SAquaSolve Rwanda. Community engagement and WASH workshops in Gashora followed, alongside the technical work now underway on Lake Mirayi. Nonprofit registration in Rwanda is in progress.
Why SAquaSolve
“A colleague, Nadine Uwizeyimana, photographed two children in Gashora drinking brown, dirty water collected in a plastic bottle. A few steps behind them, a man was washing his bicycle in the same shallow water. What stayed with me was how ordinary the moment appeared: children, a bicycle, and water within reach — water that had not been verified or treated for drinking.
Water was present. What was missing was a safe and dependable system for using it. That is the problem SAquaSolve exists to solve.”
SAquaSolve's premise is straightforward: where water exists near a community but safe, reliable service does not, that gap is an infrastructure problem worth solving properly. The organization is working with residents and local institutions in Gashora first, with the intention of applying what it learns to other underserved communities in Rwanda over time.
Team
The team is intentionally concrete: who leads the organization, how they support the work, and where reviewers or partners can verify their profiles.
Sonia Irakoze
Founder & Legal Representative
Rwandan mechanical engineering student at the University of Rochester and 2026 Davis Projects for Peace recipient. Former Ugandan Water Project development intern, with a direct, personal connection to Gashora.
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Nadine Uwizeyimana
Deputy Legal Representative & Technical Lead
Water and sanitation engineer at RICA, where she also supports SAquaSolve's water-quality testing collaboration with the institute. She serves as SAquaSolve's local coordinator, leading technical coordination, stakeholder engagement and site-level planning.
View LinkedInGovernance
SAquaSolve Rwanda is governed through a Board of Directors, responsible for strategic oversight, accountability and the organization's long-term direction. Nonprofit registration in Rwanda is in progress.
Board of Directors
SAquaSolve Rwanda's Board of Directors structure is actively being put in place as the organization formalizes its governance. Public profiles will be added here once appointments are finalized.
Profiles coming soon.
Funding & collaborators
Confirmed Collaborators
Gashora Girls Academy of Science and Technology (GGAST)
Confirmed workshop partner — completed 2026 WASH and community workshops in Gashora
Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture (RICA)
Water-quality testing and laboratory analysis collaborator for the Gashora system
Team & founder affiliations
TechGirls
U.S. State Department program · Sonia (founder background)
TechWomen
U.S. State Department program · Nadine (background)
Ugandan Water Project
Where Sonia interned in clean-water development
Partner with SAquaSolve, support safe water access, provide technical expertise, or connect institutional users. Reach the team directly and we will follow up.