Safe clean water for 6,000 people in rural Uganda

TRANSFORM AFRICA GLOBALGIVING REPORT 5 – FEBRUARY 2017

Since our last report the project has made significant progress in providing clean and safe water for vulnerable communities in Mityana and Mubende Districts, Uganda. We would like to thank our donors who in diverse ways has supported us to make this a success. Despite the continuing state of drought in the project area, the project has continued to improve access to safe water both for drinking, domestic and local agriculture.

The donations we have received have enabled us to construct two much needed boreholes in Mubende District. These two new boreholes, have benefitted an additional 300 rural community members, most of whom are women and children.  As a result, we have evidence from the local Health Centre that reports of cases of waterborne diseases have been steadily falling.

When our local partner BIVA Foundation made monitoring and follow-up visits to the area, they received many testimonies from Councillors, Teachers, parents and local leaders. These stakeholders have all expressed satisfaction and gratitude for the way the boreholes have improved their quality of life.  They have therefore extended their thanks to those from around the world who have been contributing to the borehole project through the GlobalGiving website.    Below are two testimonies of women who have especially benefitted from the boreholes project.

Testimonies

Testimony 1

A lady by the name of Alice of Kambuzi Village had this to say about the borehole

Before the construction of the borehole the lake was our water source. It was quite a distance from where we live as you can see and the way to the lake was not safe for girls and children. We lost children in the lake who drowned while fetching water and also used to encounter dangerous snakes. Since the creation of this borehole my life and that of my family has improved. We have been able to grow and water our passion fruits as you can see. I spend less time collecting water and now with the passion fruits our income has increased.

The Lake where Alice used to fetch water before the borehole

The borehole that is now in use been inspected by volunteers from GlobalGiving

Testimony 2

A lady by the name of Bernadette had this to say about the borehole in her community.

This is where we used to collect our water for domestic use. As you can see the water is not clean but we have no alternative. Children as young as these would collect water in the pond.

The pond where Bernadette and her family used to fetch water before the borehole

There was always a worry of a child drowning. We now have safe clean water. Unlike the pond the borehole does not dry up during the dry season. We are able to improve our lives now because of the borehole as we can use it for agriculture and be able to sell crops from our gardens.

The borehole that was constructed and now in use

As the above testimonies show the boreholes have had a significant impact on the lives of communities in which we are working. However, because of the drought in part of the area we are working, and the lack of adequate water provision by the government, there is still a great need to extend the water borehole project to nearby villages.  We would therefore be very grateful if you could consider making a donation to the project.  We continue to thank those who have already donated and hope that more people will give to support the project.

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TRANSFORM AFRICA

GLOBALGIVING REPORT 4 – NOVEMBER 2016

We are delighted to provide our fourth Progress Update on our water borehole project in Mityana and Mubende Districts, Uganda. The donations received through the Global Giving website during this quarter have enabled us to continue providing the greatly needed safe clean water, especially as there have been a drought in parts of the district.

Since our last update, we have constructed two additional boreholes. Funds from the Guernsey Overseas Aid & Development Commission were used to complement the donations received through the GlobalGiving website. These additional boreholes have increased the total number of boreholes available to residents in the district.

The impact of these boreholes have been remarkable. The testimony and pictures below tell the story of the benefits of the newly constructed boreholes.

Testimony from a lady about the newly constructed boreholes:

During our routine project monitoring visits, Maria, one of the beneficiary community members, was asked by our project staff to compare the original source of water with the recently completed borehole. Below is what she had to say:

"This pond was the only source of water serving more than thirty families and two schools. Children as young as three years used to collect water from this water source and I think you can see how risky it was, especially for children. In addition, we used to have outbreaks of waterborne diseases in the area. As you can see the water source is located on a slope, so when it rains all the dirt is carried down into the water. This borehole has removed the fear of our children drowning, reduced the time we used to spend on fetching water and, for the past three months, we have had very few cases of unsafe water-related diseases.”

The pond where the community used to collect drinking water

 Community members collecting water from the borehole

GlobalGiving (UK) visits our work in Uganda

Two volunteers from GlobalGiving visited beneficiary communities in our Mityana and Mubende Districts water project area in September 2016. On their return to UK, they gave us a very positive feedback with exciting stories and testimonies of how the project is changing their lives. Most importantly, they had found that contrary to the widely held view of high failure rate of boreholes, all those constructed since 2013 were still in full use and well maintained by the communities. We attribute this to the community empowering approach we use, whereby we support communities to construct the boreholes manually by themselves rather than doing it ourselves for them.