Anita is 13-years- old. She stopped going to school 2 years ago. She says; “I could not catch up with going to school everyday and at the same time collect water for my family. The school was 4km away from my home and the water source is 3kms away. This needed too much walking and i was always tired. I had to drop out of school but I was hurt because my dreams may never come true.”
Igora is a rural and very remote, hard to reach community in Buhweju District, Western Uganda. Access to safe and clean water remains one of the biggest challenges for the community because of the very mountainous terrain of the village. Without safe water, livelihood remains difficult at household levels. The effects of using dirty and unsafe water cut across to affect household incomes, close off opportunities, and create a vicious cycle of poverty. Enrollment levels, student retention and the academic performance at the only school in the community is affected .
There are more than 180 households. The majority of the people are peasants, doing subsistence farming by growing bananas, millet and beans.
This is Anita’s mother washing utensils (pictured). She needs 3hours to collect that jerrycan of water and it is never sufficient for a day.
Fully funded and the well is finished. Hooray!