Clean Water for 1,500 Children in Uganda

Greetings Supporters!

We hope you are well and staying safe. Uganda is experiencing its second wave of COVID-19 and the President has put the country on lockdown once again for 42 days ending on July 31st. This includes closure of schools, churches and non-essential businesses, no public or private transportation and no cross-District movement by residents, and curfew from 7 pm to 5:30 am. Tourist are still allowed to move in approved tourist vehicles.  We hope the lockdown will be lifted as scheduled, however there is a chance it might be extended to get the Prevelance Rate down to 5%. Due to these restrictions our preliminary project work has been delayed, but we hope to resume once the lockdown is lifted, which would include selection and cooridnation with the schools and local leaders and prelimnary baseline analysis of the communities.

We are still $1,207 away from our total funding goal so please condider an addtional donation and sharing with your networks. By providing drinking water filters, handwashing stations and hygiene education to these schools, students will have proper hydration, they will be able to focus on their education, continue with their studies, and be free from waterborne diseases that are expensive to treat and life threatening. Handwashing stations will curb the spread of COVID-19 and other diseases amongst the children, teachers, families and their community.

Thank you for your continued support to give access to clean water to the children of Uganda!

20 million Ugandans lack access to clean water, leading to easily preventable diseases. Among those most at risk are children, whose developing immune systems can't handle the physical stress imposed by COVID-19, malnutrition, and waterborne diseases (the #2 killer of children). We will install our Purifaaya XL filter, which eliminates 99.9% of bacteria from water, and our handiClean handwashing station, in three schools in the District of Mityana, impacting 1,500 children and their families. Each filter is 75 Liters and serves 50 children each. The handiClean is 100 Liters and is operated by a foot pedal to eliminate contact and cross contamination. 

Many of Uganda's rural families and schools do not have the ability to provide clean drinking water for their students, resulting in dehydration and waterborne diseases. This negatively affects their health, education, and dignity. Lack of clean water results in improper hygiene, sanitation, malnutrition, and disease, greatly affecting the learning and development of children, and disproportionally affecting girls, increasing their dropout rate, and hindering economic and societal progress.

By providing drinking water filters, handwashing stations and hygiene education to these schools, students will have proper hydration, they will be able to focus on their education, continue with their studies, less missed school days, and be free from waterborne diseases that are expensive to treat and life threatening. Handwashing stations will curb the spread of COVID-19 and other diseases amongst the children, teachers, families and their community, when children take behavior changes home.

This project will provide an increased rate of child survival for 1,500 children, which would extend into the community, lowering the infection rate of waterborne and transmittable diseases. The students will have the opportunity to learn and obtain an education, school attendance and graduation numbers will increase, especially for girls. Money previously spent to treat waterborne diseases can be utilized for other economic endeavors and provide opportunities for thriving families & community.

We have yet to hit our project goal so please share with your networks. We hope to implement this project in the next few months to bring clean water to these children in need.