Clean water is only part of the story in bringing lost lasting health changes to rural communities. To achieve the greatest health benefits, improvement in sanitation and hygiene must be made alongside access to clean water. Karungu is one of the highly water stressed villages in Rubanda District.
Adrian Ruzamaba, 69 years old, and Hope Audria, 67 years live in Karungu village, Mpungu parish, Hamurwa subcounty. They currently stay with 3 of their 10 and five grandchildren. Before receiving the WASH trainings, Adrian and his family used to drink untreated water from the pond that was shared with animals and were in-and-out of hospital due to water borne
diseases. Washing hands after visiting the toilet and before eating food was unusual and seemed water wasting and his grandchildren hardly bathed and suffered from skin infections (Dermatitis). Due to old age, it was difficult for Adrian and his wife to travel up and down the hills to fetch water and therefore their grandchildren often missed school to first fetch water; because of the water scarcity, the grand children rarely washed their school uniforms in order to spare the little water they had and consequently they would have to wear dirty uniforms to
school. The family would sometimes have to pay someone 2,000Ugshs (52 cents) to fetch a jerr ycan of water which was too costly for them given their economic status.
After continuous interaction and WASH trainings with Adrian’s family, they had the urge to improve on the hygiene and sanitation at their home. They were able to construct a proper bathing shelter and a latrine with a sato pan and a tippy tap, they now understand the benefits of hand washing, use SODIS to treat drinking water, and improved sanitation and hygiene around their home also makes them proud. Their grandchildren no longer fall sick and the money that was spent in treating them is now used to venture in income generating projects.
Clean and safe water means healthy families; more money is saved that they can now spend on education, business investments, and thus economic empowerment.
Adrian and Hope are forever grateful to AWS for giving them access to clean and safe water through the rain water harvesting tank and continuous trainings and lessons that helped them improve on the sanitation and hygiene conditions of their home.
ABOUT US
- Team
- Where we are
- Contact us
- Our Financials