Thanks to funds raised at the 2019 UK Walk for Water, as well as local fundraising completed in Uganda, the team has been able to complete several structures at Kihihi Hill.

Funds from the Walk for Water in the UK have kick-started work in Kihihi Hill, meaning that this isolated community now has a safe water supply and much improved sanitation, and is much better informed about good hygiene practices. Before WATSAN’s intervention, there was only one toilet for every 57 pupils at the school of 1,165 people, and an extremely intermittent gravity-fed water supply that had to be shared with the whole community.

Particular thanks go to those donors who responded to our previous appeal, especially Frances Buchan, who organised a flower-arranging workshop that contributed £700 to this project. Your generosity has helped us get this far, along with over £4,000 that was raised by the staff team in Uganda, thanks to their own Walk for Water in Kihihi.

The team has completed the following elements of the project:

• 1 x rainwater harvesting tank at Kihihi Church
• 2 x rainwater harvesting tanks at Kihihi School
• 1 x five-cubicle pit latrine and changing room for male pupils at school (pictured above)
• 1 x four-compartment bath shelter for girls
• 1 x two-cubicle pit latrine for staff at school

Each of the construction elements above has health and hygiene activities (education around best practice use of the structures; construction of hand-washing facilities) bundled together with it. As funds become available the team carries out separate construction elements, along with the associated ‘software’.

This just leaves two elements to be fundraised for and built:

• 1 x five-cubicle pit latrine and changing room for female pupils at school
• 1 x five-cubicle pit latrine and changing room at church

These items will be the subject of a pitch made by WATSAN at The Funding Network’s London event in January 2020, to the tune of £6,000.

We still need around £2,000 to get us over the line and complete this project. If you would like to help, you can do so here.

WATSAN’s current big target project is Kihihi Hill, where local families and school children are currently struggling to survive and thrive with a pitiful and and intermittent water supply, and dilapidated and squalid toilet facilities.

Kihihi Hill is situated in the north of the WATSAN area, outside the small town of Kihihi, which has a total population of some 15,000. There is abject poverty in and close to the Rift Valley due to relatively dry conditions and poor soil. The plight of this area has been highlighted recently by severe drought and crop failure, which seriously affected the area. There are refugees from the Congo in refugee camps near the town.

The project addresses water supply and sanitation needs at the school of over 1,000 boys and girls, a small nursery school and a church. The total number of direct beneficiaries of 1,165 people includes staff and a small local community.

The town is served by an intermittent gravity flow water supply scheme, which extends even more intermittently to Kihihi Hill, and two springs from which townspeople must draw water when the gravity taps fail or are subject to rota cuts. Children at the school generally draw water from two small rainwater catchment tanks, but must often walk one kilometre to a town spring, and join queues of people collecting water there.

The sanitation facilities at the school are pitifully inadequate, with a ratio of one latrine stance to 64 girls, and one to 49 for boys. There are only two bath shelters, one for boys and one for girls. Both are dilapidated and unhygienic.

The WATSAN project includes education and training in a wide range of health and personal hygiene related topics, together with the improvement of sanitation facilities, provision of hand washing facilities, and promotion of better hygiene across the community. A fuller specification can be found on our planned projects page.

The majority of the funds required for this project have now been raised:

• Of the total cost of the project of £35,000, we have contributions promised by the Kihihi community of £4,000.
• Our partners in Uganda have recently raised over £4,500 for the project by organising their own local Walk for Water event in Kihihi.
• Including some seed funding we have already provided, this leaves us with a current shortfall of around £10,000.
• A brief reminder on the way WATSAN’s finances work can be found here.

Hence we are appealing generally to our supporters to help with the funding shortfall that we face for Kihihi Hill, as we aim to fund the remainder of this project. Could you help us to finish this project and achieve a decisive improvement to health and quality of life for the pupils, staff and community in Kihihi Hill?

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An ageing motorbike plays a crucial role as part of Moses’ job for WATSAN, which centres on ensuring the sustainability of projects in Kinkiizi Diocese.

Those of you who have visited the WATSAN project will groan at the mention of the roads! Always cheerful, despite logistic difficulties that would depress many of us Brits, our Ugandan friends refer to their appallingly potholed highways as “our dancing roads”. Passengers are liable to be bounced around in all directions, with a helmet rather than a seat-belt the key to survival. Hence you can imagine the damage to vehicle tyres and mechanical parts – as well as your head and possibly your tummy!

Moses shared this very real need with us when he visited the UK in June. It will cost around £3,000 to replace the current clapped-out bike, and make a huge difference as Moses travels around Kinkiizi Diocese checking on the sustainability of existing projects, encouraging good management and investigating requests for further intervention and new projects from WATSAN.

Could you possibly help with a gift towards a new motorbike? Large or small, it would be most gratefully received.

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In June we were delighted to host WATSAN’s Field Director Canon Eric Baingana, and our Kinkiizi Link Person Moses Kabarebe on their visit to the UK, where we reinforced the links between the UK Support Group and WATSAN’s operational team.

The welcome was warm – but unfortunately the weather was not! Torrential rain on the motorway greeted the travellers on 7th June, followed by the wettest week of the summer. Eric and Moses were cheerful companions however, hosted by seven different trustees and WATSAN supporters, and participating in a dozen or so meetings and church services focusing on WATSAN, as well as sightseeing in London, Oxford, Hampshire and the Cotswolds.

There was a lively meeting and supper with UK trustees, and a happy reunion with members of the St. Peter’s Bishops Waltham 2017 tour party (pictured). Eric and Moses made visits to Christchurch Deanery, and to Crawley and Slough Baptist churches, the latter planning a project tour in 2020.

The fifth Walk for Water weekend from 21st–23rd June in the Quantock Hills provided a grand (and thankfully sunny!) finale to their visit.

Find out more about Eric and Moses and other WATSAN staff

During WATSAN’s Fifth UK Walk for Water, 57 wonderful supporters took part in walking, dispensing refreshments, marshalling and chauffeuring, with many more providing the vital sponsorship that enabled us to reach a fundraising total of over £17,000. This will go a long way towards funding a new water and sanitation project at Kihihi Hill in Uganda.

The Walk for Water took place on Saturday 22nd June 2019 amid the glorious scenery of the Quantock Hills in Somerset. We were delighted that so many took part and a very high proportion reached the summit of Will’s Neck, and completed the full 20 miles. The video below, courtesy of Jonny Bensted, gives a real flavour of the day.

We are extremely grateful to each and every one of the 57 people who took part: six in support (dispensing refreshments, marshalling and chauffeuring), 31 completing the whole 20-mile walk, and another 10 completing at least 10 miles. And special thanks to those who were unable to be with us, but kindly sponsored walkers so generously!

There were two special features this year. Firstly, Elizabeth Starr, who has been with us on three out of the four previous walks, but sadly suffered a life-threatening brain haemorrhage in September 2018, was able to join us. Elizabeth is well on the road to recovery, and plans, God willing, to resume her studies for her final year at Sheffield University this month September, using her wheelchair and specially adapted student accommodation. Her participation in the walk was short but spectacular, achieving a record 120 steps, supported by her parents and encouraged by her sister Joanna and the other participants during our lunch break at the National Trust’s Fyne Court, the half way point of the main walk. You can read about Elizabeth’s experience on her blog here.

Secondly, it was a special pleasure to have Eric Baingana and Moses Kabarebe with us, from the WATSAN Team in Uganda. We received this note from them two days later: “Praise God. Words cannot express the gratitude upon our hearts, (Canon Eric and I), for participating in yesterday’s walk for water activity in the Quantock Hills. First I want to thank you for considering us to be part of it. Organizing such a great team of dignified men and women, young and old to be part of the activity was so superb. More so, for the overall arrangement, a well thought about route and special thanks go to our day’s guide and the hospitality team. To us walking over 20 miles in amazing hills, valleys and rugged paths increased our sense of a deep love for WATSAN activities. Though we are still feeling the aching, pains and dizziness in our body parts, we are nonetheless so thankful.”

Turning to outcomes of the Walk, it is good to be able to report that work has already started at Kihihi Hill, the main objective of this 5th Walk for Water. Our Field Director Eric Baingana has written recently that “Implementation of Kihihi project is ongoing. Construction of both a rainwater harvesting tank at Kihihi church and a six-stance pit latrine for boys at Kihihi High School has started.”

The somewhat less good news is that proceeds from the Walk, at around £17,000 after expenses, will not meet the full cost of the project, especially as we were hoping to be able to fund a motorbike to enable Moses to get around the area in his important role as our Link Man in Kinkiizi Diocese, and in monitoring past projects in Kanungu District, both physically and managerially.

We are extremely thankful that work has been able to start at Kihihi. However, the total cost of the project is around £35,000, of which some £27,000 has been raised to date, including, remarkably, a sum of £4,500 in Uganda at their own Walk for Water, held in Kihihi itself on 15th March 2019. After allowing for a further £4,000 contributed by beneficiaries and institutions in Kihihi, we need a further £11,000, including £3,000 for the new motorbike referred to above. Gift-aided contributions could reduce this target to less that £9,000. We would be very grateful if our supporters would consider making a contribution towards this life-saving project.

Make your contribution – donate now