ACTS FOR WATER
Acts for Water is one of Canada’s oldest water charities. For over 30 years now people like you have helped us deliver clean, disease-free water to communities in rural Uganda. It has changed everything. We believe giving a child clean, accessible water is the best way to help them transform their future and we’re focused on being the best at just that. In order for clean water to truly transform a village, it needs to be connected to every part of the community’s life, most importantly the school. When water and latrines are available at a school, kids can safely attend, learn, and stay healthy, going on to influence the hygiene health of the entire region!
what they do:
It’s for this reason we are inviting you to join us in partnering with the kids at Nyamabaare Primary School (the largest in the area) to give the opportunity to experience freedom from needlessly walking to and from the swamp for water, to give them hygiene health, and to give the chance to thrive through clean, safe water: for life. The project is not for everyone. Building sustainable, longer lasting water systems, working with schools, building latrines, teaching hygiene and sanitation as a pathway for education and community transformation is more expensive, a bit harder to grasp and doesn’t always make for the best Instagram photos. But it truly is the work that transforms a village! We’ve seen it over and over again and we’d love to have you join with us on this endeavor.
the project:
The project GFH helps with is The Nyamabaare School Water & Hygiene Project. High up in the rural mountainside of the Ibanda District is a village called Kisabo with a school called Nyamabaare Primary School. The village has over 120 families and the school serves over 600 kids, none of whom currently have access to clean, disease-free water. Right now, these kids, teachers and community members walk on average 3 kilometers to fetch dirty water, and use an unsheltered hole in the ground for a washroom. It provides no protection for kids, particularly young girls, leaving them vulnerable to waterborne disease, assault and more. 1 in 3 schools worldwide lack access to a clean, safe latrine, 1 in 3 kids in Uganda lack access to clean water. The baseline surveys in this community show this community lives on less than $1.90 per day, their adults have primary school literacy levels and 80% of the families lack any basic pit latrine, hand-washing station or knowledge of basic hygiene protocols. Poor hygiene and sanitation is the number one reason why 1 in 7 girls don’t graduate from primary school. Rather than walking to class, girls in particular will walk to and from the swamp for water for daily life. Without water in a village, parents cannot afford school fees as they cannot work, or what little income they have is used on expensive medication. If kids do go to school, they use exposed pit latrines (holes in the ground) that are not private, and leave them vulnerable to disease, sores and worse. When we work with the school, we begin to teach health and sanitation with the kids through games, story and song. We equip them to build handwashing stations at the schools, but we also teach their families how to make soap from local ingredients at their homes. When latrines are built, girls no longer have to drop out of school when they reach the age of maturity, or risk assault because they have to relieve themselves in the forest. Instead, they can have a dignified, sheltered and secure place to go to the washroom. Relieving them of this worry and restoring dignity to them, improves their desire to attend school and improves their ability to focus on school work. With hygiene and sanitation training, kids learn at a young age the critical importance of the foundations of health and they go on to influence the health and wellbeing of the entire community, for generations to come.
