Giving Update: Chandolo Community, Joseph Ingara Spring

The protection of Jospeh Ingara Spring in Chandolo has brought order, unity, and a great sense of responsibility in sharing common resources within the community. The spring has brought people together, especially during the dry season, when many people come together to find a solution to their water problem from this water point.

The spring users here have learned to face difficult moments with strength and to open their hearts for new learning. As a result, they have become more resilient, reliable, and trustworthy in terms of their ability to conserve, manage, and sustain the available water points within their community.

To ensure that future generations in Chandolo will no longer have to struggle to get water, community members are running an environmentally friendly campaign within their area to replace eucalyptus trees with different species that do not drain and lower the water table like Chandolo once encountered.

It is so encouraging to see community members practice what was learned during the health and hygiene training to the letter. Most compounds are clean, and houses are visibly clean. Clothes are hanged on wire lines and dishes are put on dish racks to dry, and this explains why hygiene-related diseases have decreased here.

The coming of this project has brought positive change in the Chandolo community and this means their living standards will keep on improving, leading to continued development by the community, in the community as an impact of this spring protection.

Landowner Joseph Ingara welcomed us back to his spring to share his story of how the project has changed his community over the last year.

"Protection of Joseph Ingara Spring has come as a blessing to this community. The spring is neat and clean at all times. This beauty acts both as a trigger and a positive reinforcement on the hygiene and sanitation message that is still being perpetuated by the people who were trained on the same. It has also made it easy for the spring users to volunteer to clean the spring weekly. Some feel indebted to us as the landowner and they don't want to disappoint us should the spring be found dirty," he said.

"This has helped in developing a deep sense of responsibility and accountability among the community members because everyone knows the value of this water point. We use it to water our animals, for cooking, bathing, [to] do laundry and [wash] utensils as well for drinking. In addition, we no longer have reported cases of diarrheal diseases when one uses water from this source unlike [how] it was during the baseline survey."

"Members of Chandolo Salvation Army church also fetch water from this source and cases of waterborne and water-related diseases among [attendees there] have reduced. This is not [only] because the water point is safe but also due to the improvement in water handling skills among users. As parents, we feel good that the burden of footing medical costs has been lifted off our shoulders because our children now drink safe water ."

Landowner Joseph Ingara, namesake to the spring

Though decades younger than Mr. Ingara, 12-year-old Stacy Vugutsa was not to be left out in sharing her story about the spring's impact with eloquence and impact.

"Looking back a year ago, I dreaded the mere thought that I should go to fetch water from the spring. It meant carrying a container and a cup or anything else that I had to use in scooping water from the open-source and to fill my bucket. It was an embarrassing scene and a bad experience that today belongs to history."

"Now, [I] am very much [a] happy girl for I am able to rush and collect water from the spring without necessarily having to wade into the dirty water as it was [once] the case. When I drink water from this spring [I] am confident that the water is safe for human consumption. And whenever I wash my clothes and school uniform my joy is that I will be smart and ready to learn without the worry that my clothes could be dirty. Why? The water is clean and rinses clothes so well. One fruit I count to my credit is the pawpaw tree that I planted and irrigated with the water from Joseph Ingara Spring; it helps me appreciate development, however little my contribution could be."

Stacy Vugutsa