Rehabilitation Project
This is a project we were able to do in cooperation with Attack Poverty. Upon completion of the project, our partner in the field reports...
Community Details
When the team arrived in Byanamira to drill a borehole benefiting 430 families, there was a desperate need for safe drinking water as families had resorted to solely depending on rainwater collection to support their immediate water needs. The Living Water team successfully implemented a safe water solution for these 430 families, also benefiting a local Catholic Church and community center.
This new well is being managed by a community constituted water governance structure, the Water User Committee (WUC). The Water User Committee consists of 10 members including 5 women and 5 men. The capacity of the WUC members is being developed through trainings and refresher trainings in three core areas: Basic financial management, group dynamics and community mobilization and sensitization and mobilization. Living Water Uganda will engage or mentor the WUC for 2 years to enhance its capacity to effectively manage the water source. The community has fenced the new well, dug a soak pit, and agreed on an Operations and Maintenance tariff of 1000/$0.4 per month. The O&M fund will be kept at the WUC bank account held at Byanamira Saving and Credit Society.
The Living Water Uganda Evangelist for Nyabushozi WASH Program Area (WPA) conducted trainings for church leaders in Byanamira Parish, Kashongi sub-county. Altogether, 15 people including 9 men and 6 women were in attendance. These leaders were empowered to use story telling in their day-to-day services and as a tool for evangelism. Thematic bible studies were conducted at Byanamira Catholic Church, Byanamira Parish. These studies were meant to mobilize the church leaders to take center stage in addressing the material, social and spiritual needs of their communities. Altogether, 16 people including 11 men and 5 women attended the mobilization at the local church.
Hygiene Promotion
The Hygiene Promotion team conducted water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) baseline survey feed back meetings in this community. The meetings were attended by the sub-county officials, community leaders and community members. During the meetings, the team communicated key baseline findings, likely challenges that will deter community members from taking action to improve sanitation, as well as the hygiene promotion strategies and approaches that will be employed by Living Water Uganda program. Altogether, 46 people including 20 women and 26 men attended the training. As result of the meetings, there has been increased participation of the different stakeholders in Living Water hygiene promotion activities. Using community health strategy approach, community structures such as Village Health Teams (VHTs, health assistants and cluster heads were trained in UMOJA-hygiene promotion approach which integrates Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS), Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation (PHAST) and clustering system taking into consideration the strength of each approach to reinforce the hygiene promotion work. This community health promotion structures are being equipped with CLTS tools like community mapping, transect walk, feces calculation and health costing methods to trigger communities into taking collective actions to eliminate open defecation in their communities. Verification visits by the HP team, community health promotion structures and the sub-county staff shows significant improvement in hygiene and sanitation practices in this community.
Community Member Interview
The Living Water team had an opportunity to meet with 38-year-old community member and subsistence farmer, Kakuru, who shared, “The health situation of this village has been very alarming. Medical related expenses have been high largely due to huge amount of money spent treating diarrhea and dysentery. I think this water point will save us from incurring medical expenses borne out of consuming unsafe water. Thank you living water and your sponsors."
