Rehabilitation Project
Our implementing partner reports...
The school is located in Kyabwato village, Kyentaama parish, Rukoni east sub county, Ruhaama County and has 252 pupils. Before LWI drilled the borehole at the school there was no proper source of water nearby for both the community and the pupils. There was initially tap water from water supplied by gravity by the sub county authority in the compound but the source of the water dried up. As a result, the pupils and the school and community use protected spring water which is about a kilometer from the school. This water is not sufficient for the community as it flows out very little water.
When the team arrived, community members were also utilizing a spring located one kilometer away from the community, to meet all of their water needs. Because of this, residents were suffering from malaria, diarrhea and severe dehydration. During the team’s stay, community members assembled a water committee consisting of five men and two women who are responsible for developing a sustainability strategy in conjunction with the LWI sustainability coordinator. The nearest school is a primary school located in the community, whose students, teachers and administrative personnel all have access to the new, safe water source.
The LWI Uganda team had an opportunity to meet with forty-three year old community member and school management committee person, Everest Nyongirwe, who stated, "You have connected the community and the school relationship. This project will help us to work hand in hand with the school management to see that we develop our school and make changes for a better living. The community is quite happy about what you have done through our government leaders and I hope we are going to get the use of this water because the well is stationed near us, on behalf of the school and the entire community we thank you so much and who ever God has used to put this together we thank them!"
During the hygiene education, key topics were divided in sections of Water sources, Clean and unclean water, Keeping water clean, Disease transmission, Sanitation practices, Personal hygiene, House hold hygiene and Nutrition. The pupils were more knowledgeable about how to keep water clean and household hygiene but they did not know much about the clean and unclean water sources, how to have a balanced diet (Nutrition), how diseases are transmitted in their day to day lives, the proper sanitation practices and personal hygiene. The team realized that most of the pupils had been washing hands in one bowl of contaminated water. One teacher who had attended the LWI training, with the pupils was quoted saying "These are very important lessons that even us as teachers can learn from." The team also encouraged the teachers to assist the pupils when they are teaching the rest of the school about health and sanitation. The team further learned that the most common diseases in the community are: Diarrhea, dysentery, malaria and trachoma. The unhealthy practices included; Defecting in the open places such as gardens and by the roadside, leaving food uncovered, not washing hands especially after using the latrine and before eating, taking contaminated water because many people do not want to boil it, leaving animals to loiter freely and throwing rubbish throughout the community. The team addressed the unhealthy practices and encouraged the school to help maintain and implement these practices into their daily routines.
