Longtime WATSAN supporter Jenny passed away on Easter Sunday 2024. Her family wanted to continue her lifetime’s work improving health outcomes by raising funds for WATSAN.

Jenny Vaughan, who died aged 55 of breast cancer, was a consultant neurologist best known for her courageous campaigning to reform the law on gross negligence manslaughter, and end the blame game in healthcare.

Jenny, her husband Matt and their two boys have had a passion for improving health for many years. As two NHS consultants, they were aware of how fortunate we are in the UK to have an NHS.

Jenny and Matt believed that in the developing world, the most effective way to improve health is to ensure a sustainable supply of clean water. They have been supporters of WATSAN for many years, participating in several Walks for Water and visiting the project in Uganda. Despite Jenny’s deteriorating health from breast cancer, she recently helped organise an online fundraising auction for WATSAN, raising £5k towards our Kazuru project.

Jenny passed away on Easter Sunday 2024, and her family chose WATSAN to benefit from donations made in her memory. The appeal has exceeded the £500 target, raising over £1,500 thanks to donations from people who loved and admired Jenny. WATSAN’s trustees are incredibly thankful for this wonderful support from Jenny and her family, dear friends and supporters of WATSAN.

Donations to Jenny’s appeal are still open, and can be made on Stewardship here.

In August 2024, a team from St Peter’s Church, Bishop’s Waltham embarked on their second trip to Uganda, spending two weeks in direct contact with WATSAN’s life-saving work on the ground in South-West Uganda.

The team of 21 people of all ages spent their time getting to know our amazing staff team, and meeting the communities and beneficiaries of our work. The team has spent months fundraising for our Kazuru gravity flow scheme project, and carried out manual labour and community engagement work on the project in situ.

The group was a mixed team from across Hampshire, Oxford and London, brought together by friendship and church connections. A large portion of the team belong to St Peter’s Bishops Waltham and St John’s Locks Heath, and it included a vicar, an engineer, nurse, business woman and a handful currently working in government. The team was accompanied on the trip by WATSAN’s founder and Chair Ian Bensted, on what he expects to be his last trip to Uganda in anticipation of his retirement as Chair in October.

Team members fundraised to pay their own travelling costs and also for a contribution towards the project. This included a cycle round the Isle of Wight, lots of painting and decorating, airport taxi service, half marathons, quiz nights, fine dining and sing along evenings! 

The itinerary took in site visits, work with a local orphanage and a hospital, engagement with the Mother’s Union and touristic activities such as a trip to Murchison Falls National Park. The group was also able to visit the fresh site at Kazuru, and to help to literally prepare the ground for pipes to be laid.

The trip’s leader, Rev James Hunt, said following the trip: “All of on the team are still processing and will be reflecting on all that happened and we have learned for some time to come. For me, the heart of the trip is about growing love and friendship that gives practical and spiritual hope. For the team members, my hope is what happens now after the trip: a better perspective on life in general (love, friendship, loyalty, integrity and partnership) and our specific purpose in life. And overall my hope and that of WATSAN is that more lives will be lived in support of what WATSAN does, or other work like it.”

For a real insight into the experience, you can read the team’s brilliant blog, written during the trip, on Substack.

One of WATSAN’s most significant fundraising projects has reached its target for Phase 1, which is enabling construction of a brand new pipeline connecting raw water sources to a health centre in this isolated rural community.

In 2022, WATSAN launched a fundraising appeal for our key target project, Kazuru gravity flow scheme. Schemes like this take a natural water supply – usually a good strong spring protected in the hills – and use gravity to bring it to a local community. These are major schemes serving up to 5,000 or more people, schools, clinics etc. Watch Moses from the Ugandan staff team explain what a gravity flow scheme is

Currently, children in the area are walking for miles over hills to collect water from polluted open ponds. Sanitation takes the form of semi-permanent structures built from mud. Moses says of local people: “I think they accept the conditions they are in, but painfully. It affects them psychologically. But most importantly, WATSAN’s planned intervention in their area gives them hope that their life can be improved.”

Over the past two years, many fundraising efforts have gone towards building funds to start this project, including a 138km cycle marathon; dispersed walks for water; an auction of promises; a quiz night; and a trip to Uganda by St Peter’s Church. This has raised a combined total of £45k towards Kazuru, which means WATSAN is now in a position to start building Phase 1 of the scheme. Phase 1 will protect the sources, and run a pipeline from the higher ground down to a community health centre.

The long-awaited Kazuru implementation kicked off in August 2024, with a ground-breaking ceremony on 27th August 2024 which took place at the project water source, Kaashambya, located in Rwengwe cell. The ceremony was presided over by local religious and political leaders, and attended by a team of 21 people from the Bishop’s Waltham team from the UK, including WATSAN’s Chair Ian Bensted. Speaker after speaker appreciated God for the breakthrough and the landowner Mr. Elly for allowing the development of a water source located in his land. The whole community was called upon for unity, support and team work during and after implementation of the scheme.

The WATSAN Uganda – UK Support team would like to celebrate the achievement of our target for Phase 1, and to sincerely thank the donors and supporters in the UK who have taken part in fundraising and events over the past two years.

We are now looking ahead to Phase 2 of the project, which will maximise the benefit of this initial investment, extending the pipework much further to reach many more people with tap stands to be installed close to homes, workplaces and schools, including into the displaced Batwa (‘pygmy’) community. Phase 2 will also incorporate a comprehensive sanitation building programme, and a significant hygiene education outreach programme. The potential is huge… and the target is a further £40k!

If you would like to support us on climbing up this rather big second hill, we would really appreciate your help! Please consider donating to phase 2 here

Thirty people came along to our quiz night in Oxfordshire, with the proceeds split between WATSAN and social enterprise Damascus Rose Kitchen.

Hosted by WATSAN trustee Kate Parrinder and her family, the quiz took place on Friday 24th May at Eynsham Village Hall. The quizmaster was Dr Bryn Harris, who gained a DPhil in Classics from the University of Oxford and made three appearances on the BBC’s University Challenge representing Wadham College in 2006, making it to the quarter finals. Bryn also has the more important accolade of being Kate’s husband.

Five teams took up the challenge, pitting their wits against the quizmaster with six rounds of questions covering general knowledge, film and TV, history, science and technology, and music (plus a picture round). Just for fun, here is a question from each round – can you spot the theme?

Which British city is said to have a greater combined length of canals than Venice?

Which 2016 Disney film tells the story of an island princess who embarks on an adventure to reunite the goddess of nature with her stolen heart?

Which 19^th century Scottish missionary famously got lost trying to find the source of the Nile?

The cause of which water-borne disease was famously discovered in an experiment by physician John Snow?

Which disco ‘smash’ of 1978 takes its lyrics from Psalm 137 of the Bible?

During the break, a delicious buffet was served provided by Damascus Rose Kitchen, an Oxford-based social enterprise serving traditional Middle Eastern dishes made with love by Arabic-speaking refugee women.

Huge thanks is owed to quizmaster Bryn for devising the ingenious and challenging quiz, and to Posy, Kate’s mum, for sponsoring the hall hire and providing gorgeous flowers for the tables.

Proceeds of the event were shared between Damascus Rose and WATSAN, and will help to fund WATSAN’s target project,  Kazuru gravity flow scheme, which will serve a large, remote community on the DRC border with its first supply of piped water.

Find out how you can support WATSAN

Pit your wits against a University Challenge quarter-finalist and enjoy an amazing buffet supper supplied by Syrian refugee women from Damascus Rose Kitchen.

Friday 24th May 2024, 7.30-10.00pm

Enter a team of up to six people to WATSAN’s quiz night at Eynsham Village Hall, and help provide clean water and dignified sanitation to communities in Uganda. Quizmaster and University Challenge alumnus Dr Bryn Harris will challenge you to answer several rounds of questions on music, history, current affairs and whatever else is going through his head that week…

The ticket price includes a fabulous buffet supper from Damascus Rose Kitchen, a local social enterprise that brings you delicious Middle Eastern food hand made by Syrian refugee women. Bring your own booze or whatever you would like to drink.

All profits will go to WATSAN Uganda, a UK charity dedicated to the support of a water and sanitation programme in South West Uganda. Thanks to WATSAN’s work, people in rural communities have access to life-saving clean water and hygienic toilet facilities.

NB if you are coming in a smaller group or alone, please do book a ticket and we will create a team for you on arrival!

Get your tickets here!