Dr. Barbara Kazimbaya-Senkwe, Kenya
“I am inspired by women who succeed because we need women in powerful positions to demonstrate to our young girls that anything can be done. It doesn’t matter where you come from, if you are determined, you will get to where you need to be.”
Human Interest and Families: This series focuses on our employees who live and work overseas, and how Tetra Tech supports them and their families with their transition.
With more than ten years of experience in urban and regional planning of water supply and sanitation, as a coordinator, Barbara oversees the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Finance (WASH-FIN) project’s activities in Africa and promotes open-dialogue with partner governments in Kenya, Senegal and South Africa. WASH-FIN helps close financing gaps and improve governance structures to gain universal access to water and sanitation services in sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia.
Barbara comes from a very large family; she is the first of 10 children. Growing up in Zambia, whenever she visited her grandparents’ house, Barbara had to walk for 2–3 kilometers (1.2–1.8 miles) to fetch water and carried a bucket of water on her head. “I didn’t like doing it, it was so heavy,” says Barbara. “And the work didn’t stop because I brought the water back to the house. I then had to help to do the dishes or clean the house. My responsibilities went on and on.”
Her childhood experiences pushed Barbara to get involved in the development field because she wanted young girls from all over the world to have better opportunities and lead fruitful lives.
“I have been teaching for a while, and I find that girls are afraid to aim high. This isn’t because they aren’t capable, but rather because they were told they weren’t good enough,” says Barbara.
For Barbara, a resilient and water-secure world would be one in which everybody has access to basic human services, and young girls aren’t expected to walk long distances to draw the water that their families need. Through her work at Tetra Tech, Barbara is playing a part in achieving a water-secure world.
