Kishungwe is a rural community in Buhweju district, Western Uganda. The village has many hills, which makes access to water challenging because they have to go down into the low lying areas and back up the steep hills with heavy containers of water on their heads. Unfortunately, this water is dirty and unsafe and often makes them sick. Many children don’t go to school before 7 years of age because they are sick. The older ones who later go to school are always absent. Generally, poverty levels in this community are high. Acces to basic services is also difficult since it’s considered as a hard to reach place.
There are more than 100 households, and 1 school. The majority of the people are peasants, doing subsistence farming by growing bananas, millet and beans.
Sharon is 15 yrs old and she dropped out of school after primary level, 2 yrs ago. One of the reasons she dropped out was because she needed more time to collect water for her family and because it was not easy to access water at school (picttured).
Sharon and her mum are here seen at home putting to use the water that sharon has just brought home. Though the water is dirty and unsafe, it is used for all home chores (pictured).
The water use committee (pictured).