Kyankanda is a rural community in Buhweju district, western Uganda. The village has many hills, which makes access to water challenging. People 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 always 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’ village.
There are more than 150 households. The majority of the people are peasants, doing subsistence farming by growing bananas, millet and beans.
Jimmy is a father of 2 and a sole provider for his young family. His wife gave birth only a few weeks ago and the responsibility of collecting water for the home lies on him. Unfortunately, he has to miss about 4 hours of work on his garden which is the source of income for the family.
Door to door, a local organization working in this region, got to know about the Community Funded Well Program. They introduced it to the leaders in this area. The community welcomed the idea and are now ready to participate in the program.