Water & Sanitation
Poor sanitation and hygiene is a cross-cutting health concern in all rural Ugandan villages. Poor sanitation leads to diarrhea diseases, which are responsible for 17% of all deaths of children under five (World Health Organization). Poor personal and household hygiene can lead to trachoma, increased rate of infections, and a number of other diseases. A home with standing water can become a breeding ground for mosquitoes and increase malaria rates not just for that family, but for the neighbours as well.
Educaring Africa's development partner ASTCF helps to educate its village communities about the importance of household hygiene, personal hygiene, and sanitation through outreaches. Through partnerships with local schools and local community groups, its projects encourage children to adopt personal habits of hygiene and to help their schools and their families.
How We Help...
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Spring Wells
There are a number of spring wells in Kahangi Village, which provide vital water resources for local people to survive. However, many of them are not fitted with the infrastructure required to provide safe and easy access to clean drinking water. Some wells are also fitted with old technology that once broken is unable to be viably fixed, which is ultimately unsustainable. Educaring Africa and its development partner ASTCF have previously helped construct a new spring well, which the local community also contributed towards with materials and labour. There are a number of other well locations in the community that require similar treatment, which we are constantly seeking support to be able to undertake with the community.
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Pit Latrines
Many pit latrines in the community are run down, very unhygienic and unsafe for use. These include at people's homes and schools. Some are even without access to such facilities and providing safe and clean latrines is vital in the effort to prevent the spread of disease and illness. Educaring Africa and ASTCF seek to replace or provide these facilities one by one and in 2017 it will upgrade its first two latrine blocks, which are located at a community precinct featuring a primary school, nursery school and church. Together with our stablised brick pressing machine, the community will now have access to free bricks that will help subsidise a large proportion of the cost to construct a latrine. Besides bricks, a new latrine block (two toilets) costs approximately US$900 and are critically important to helping ensure a healthy community.