implementer info

By Global Women's Water Initiative Posted on Fri 27 Jul 2012, over 12 years ago

Hi there

Can you give us more info about the implementers?

Thanks!
Gemma

implementer info

By Blue Planet Network Posted on Tue 31 Jul 2012, over 12 years ago

Hi Erin,
Since you entered the draft of this application 6 months ago, can you update all peers on the work that has already been done. I think this will help explain more about the implementers and the drilling process. I think there will be a lot for others to learn from your experience of putting together a very grass-roots local implementation team, almost entirely from within the community.

implementer info

By Drink Local. Drink Tap. Posted on Sun 05 Aug 2012, over 12 years ago

Hi Gemma and Mark,

This project came about when I was speaking in a local Cleveland school about water, I saw letters written on the wall in another language, asked the teacher (who is from Uganda) about them, and she said she visited Uganda a few years ago and visited this school (St Bonaventure) full of many orphaned kids. She kept the mailing address really thinking about how sad their situation was off the grid in Mullajji Village. One day, she had her students write letters to the kids in Uganda and they wrote back telling students about not having shoes, food, books, clothes, water....I heard water, got mad, and started designing a project the next day. I started skyping with Africare in East Africa and others, starting to realize no one wanted to fund this small project. This made me even more upset since these children are not just another metric-they matter.

Teddy, the local teacher, gave me the email to her niece who works in Wobulenzi Town Council, Uganda. She hires, and filters out contractors for the local government and works in water, hygiene and sanitation as most of her job. So, we connected, she agreed to donate some of her services to better her own country, and we began developing the budget after her visit to the school. We negotiated budgets at a distance, she located reliable contractors and engineers, and we had a budget in place before my first trip in 2011.

In 2011, I flew to Uganda with a photographer, filmmaker, myself and brought the local schoolteacher who gave us the connection-we looked at this as the start to a grassroots story for a documentary and the time where we could start the water team with the school/community, have our site visit so we could best decide, with the community, what the appropriate plan should be to bring water to the school (borehole, rain collection, etc.) We also filmed throughout East Africa in the Kibera Slum-Kenya, Tanzania, and Zanzibar.

After that trip, we were able to come back, create an unfinished 26 min movie to help fund raise and create awareness about water access issues in East Africa compared to the Great Lakes Region in the US. We even had a gallery show to benefit the kids and privately screen the film. Additional fundraising has occured through direct individuals, happy hour events, and the school children in the US that go through our Wavemaker Program. Last gaps and extras were filled in by the good ol' plastic credit card and a nice $10,000 donation from a water foundation- we were their first project and they gained naming rights to the borehole.

It took one year for us to get back to Africa ready to implement the project Phase 2 at St Bonaventure of drilling, start discussing Phase 3 with the water team, train the water committee (a joint effort between us and our local Ugandan project manager) and start scoping our next project at an AIDS orphanage. We are still designing a tap system for Phase 3 and an irrigation and shallow well project for the AIDS orphanage. We focus on safe water ACCESS.

Does this help?

Thanks for your question!

Erin

implementer info

By Global Women's Water Initiative Posted on Mon 06 Aug 2012, over 12 years ago

Thanks Erin.Very helpful. Do you have future plans for additional WASH projects?

implementer info

By Drink Local. Drink Tap. Posted on Mon 06 Aug 2012, over 12 years ago

Hi Gemma,
Yes, we do. While in Uganda this year (June/July 2012), I traveled to Masindi to visit an AIDS orphanage there and discuss their water needs. We are proposing two projects there. We are waiting for a budget to negotiate from my contractor there for an irrigation project for the orphan farm so they can minimize food expenses in town by maximizing their farm land and also intend to see about a shallow well on-site so the students are not walking for water, can wash properly, etc. An agreement we intend to have with the school is to shift money saved from food expenses and buy a sustainable supply of soap for hygiene purposes on site.

At the same time, we are designing Phase 3 for St Bonaventure Primary school which will be a 3 tap system- pumping water into holding tanks to gravity feed into 3 taps at the schools. Taps will be located by the cooking/ pit latrine area, the school buildings, and the dorms. The borehole we drilled could potentially serve the entire Luweero District (100,000 people), so we want to maximize the water access for the students before we move on.

Thanks Gemma! Enjoy your day!