By Lee Koelzer | Director
I have been doing field work in Uganda for the past 11 years. As a giant white lady, I am highly vissible in the rural villages we work in. We even joke that they can see me coming from a kilometer away because of how my white skin glows.
This year, I decided to come back to the USA for a few months and left Grassroots Uganda in the hands of our Program Officer mariam. She is doing a fantastic job. However, when the well broke down a few months ago- no one reported it to her! Keep in mind we have the farm worker, our library and librarian as well as orphans we support in the village. Yet the community decided that since they had not been seeing ME physically, I (Grassroots Uganda) would not be repairing the well.
The well gets a lot of use. It is the main source of water for a few thousand people and it needs repair about every 4-6 months. Each time in the past that it has broken down, we have repaired it. This time, the village held a meeting and they started raising money in contributions from community members to fix it themselves! By the time Mariam learned about it, they had already raised over 300,000ugx (about $100) which was amazing! Of course Mariam had to have another meeting with them about how even though the giant white lady was not there, Grassroots Uganda was still going to maintain the well and continue our other projects. Since Mariam is a tiny little spitfire, I assume there was lots of theatrical arm waving and lecturing involved. All said and done, the community decided we should still put their contribution towards fixing the well and Grassroots Uganda contributed the additional 700,0000ugx needed. The well is working perfectly again and hopefully the villagers no longer think I have abandoned them.
What was so awesome about this story is how the community came together in my perceived absence and worked together to fix the well. If Mariam had not stepped in, they eventuallly would have raised enough money to fix it themselves. They easily could have just saved their money and walked the extra few kilometers to fetch water from the polluted stream as they had before. But instead they value our contribution to their community enough that even without us present, they have the dedication to strive and sacrifice to keep the well as their clean safe water supply, and not just sit on their heals waiting for an outside organization to do it for them.
This is empowerment. This is people coming together to help each other and themselves. This makes my heart happy.
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