Please join us on the ‘Walk for Water’ in Ruhanga on 3rd December 2011 from 10:00am.

Funds are being raised to continue with the installation of a new pipeline to supply fresh mountain water to the villagers of Ruhanga, in SW Uganda. Participants are invited to take the guided walk to the source of the water located in the beautiful hills above the village, and see some of the construction already completed.

After this 1-2hour hike there will be a BBQ at Ruhanga Community Development School, with the chance to meet local villagers and school children who will benefit from the pipeline once it is completed.

The walk is organized by UK registered charity ‘Let Them Help Themselves Out of Poverty’, both to raise money and awareness of the great distance folk in Ruhanga have to travel to access clean water.

In June 2011 I and some of volunteers went out to Uganda and covered this trail and you can see how we got on in these two video clips

1. Bottled water (min 1litre)

2. Walking stick or pole if you are at all unsteady on rough ground

3. Camera to remember the fantastic views!

4. Camping facilities will be provided in the school grounds

5.A good pair of Walking boots

6. sun lotion

Or visit their website directly:

http://lethemhelpthemselves.eventbrite.com/

Like most folk that grew up in rural Uganda/Africa we didn’t have running water, you can read about by personal story here .  My friends and I have therefore dedicated the last 2 years to bringing clean water Ruhanga a village in SW Uganda  and work finally got under way in January of this year.

Our task was to pipe water from the hills above the village  to the valley where the local school we founded is as well install two taps in the village so at least 10,000 people in the village could have access to clean water.  You can follow that journey in  this post. It was all hands on board as the community got behind the project by signing the contract with the water engineers, supervising the contractors and digging the trenches were the pipes would go.

All of that seems like a distant memory!

School Children turn on the taps

Water finally arrived at the Ruhanga community Project School and as you can see the children were very keen to try it out themselves

Clean water supply to Volunteer accommodation

Our work is supported by a large number of volunteers who travel from all over the world to come and spend time and the village and up until now the women in the village have had to carry water on their heads for use at the volunteer accommodation . This will no longer the case as the accommodation has its own water supply

The first tap in the village

Finally one of the taps for the supply of clean water to the village is also up and the locals were quick to take advantage of this.

We are not quite done! In order to cover the entire village we need to install another tap. We cannot tap into the current water source so we have to find another stream up in the hills, dig trenches, lay some pipes  and bring the water to the valley. We therefore still need your support to achieve this and if you can get to Uganda on 3 December 2011 please join us on the Walk 4 Water Campaign  http://www.lethemhelpthemselves.org/walk-for-water

This is the journey of the search for clean water in Ruhanga a pretty village in SW Uganda, For a wider  selection of photos from our Walk for Clean Water check out Ethnic Supplies facebook page

This is the source of water and as you can see it is not ideal for human consumption

Sadly the community has no choice to but use this water and the task of water collection is left to the children in the village. They fill up the jerrycans  which they then carry on their heads

At the front of this photo is the stream(near the stones) that can supply clean water to the community in the valley below

George chair of the local community based organisation show us the route where the pipes were due to be laid

Remember her?  Yes that is Ann our project coordinator trying out the newly piped water

This is the first step in the water storage system- we really are nearly there

This is the space set aside for the next storage tank before the water can get village below. We need to raise #3000 to get the water from here to the point where folk in the community can actually turn on the tap.

Please help us to the last step by making a donation

The Story of Let Them Help Themselves out of Poverty starts  with 67 year old Grandmother of 4 Ann McCarthy- she recalls here her first trip to SW Uganda and where she is right now

Ann McCarthy-2nd from left

How did I get started

Many people ask me how I got started on setting up a charity project and helping a rural village community in SW Uganda to meet some of their daily challenges.While I was travelling in Uganda about 6 years ago I was invited by a local man to go to his village and meet some of his friends and family. He was one of the better off people in the village as he had a job, and he wanted to start some income-generating activities for others in his village as there was almost no employment in the area.

One of the ideas he had was to open up a Guest House or at least a Coffee Shop, and when he realised that I ran a B&B here in UK he asked if I would teach him how it was done. I agreed as his compound was in an ideal location – directly on the main road from Kampala to Kabale – and all who went to visit the mountain gorillas, tree climbing lions and other tourist attractions, passed by the gate. I could see this was a good idea, and was already making plans!

Once I got involved other community challenges became apparent; there was no education for any children under seven and even after that it was mornings only for a couple of years and it was not totally free. There was a lack of access to clean water in the village, no mosquito nets had been distributed leading to a high incidence of malaria, and there was little opportunity for villagers to earn any extra cash unless their small vegetable plots produced an excess of food to the family needs.

When I returned to the UK I started mobilising my friends and family to get involved. Denis had already half built the main house from bricks he employed local men to make when I met him and each year we have been able to upgrade and add a couple more rooms or another Banda. Now we can sleep more than 20 visitors at any one time. Each room has its own comfortable bed with an attached shower and an electricity socket.

Hills flank each side of the road both in front and behind us, and provide some fantastic walking opportunities. Visitors are warmly welcomed and invited in when they pass village homes and despite having so few possessions they are always ready to share what little they have. This is one of the things that attracted me to the area so much when I first went there.

After discussions with village women we agreed to start a Nursery School and now 3 years later we have almost completed building 7 classrooms – taking in children from aged three years up to P2 level. Our numbers grew very slowly as first and we found some parents and guardians were offering fruit vegetables and even work in return for schooling their children. Denis and I hated to send the children away and then early last year one young volunteer had a bright idea.

Through a low-cost sponsorship scheme we are now educating approx. 200 young children for free. We are employing 7 qualified local teachers, a headmaster and a matron to help with the babies. We provide each child a daily mug of porridge. Volunteers have bought exercise books, pens, crayons and picture books. Uniforms have been donated from a variety of UK schools, but we always need more – especially blue grey or black. I also need more sponsors and we have a website www.sponsorachild.co.uk

Aside from things for our own school 250 households have received free mosquito nets through our fundraising with

Ann- distributing Mosquito nets

Against Malaria.

We have donated football boots and kits to three local football teams. At various times local government schools have received gifts of chemistry equipment, hand-washing facilities, a TV & DVD players, a generator, recording equipment , mosquito nets, books and various sports equipment such as racquets, balls and ropes.

We have created a small library at Uganda Lodge where all local people can access books, computers and other educational materials. Eventually the community would like to have a building at the school for vocational training, starting the children on learning a trade at an early age, and also offering courses to older villagers.
We have run two Business Training workshops and had the course material translated into local language for future use. We already have many tools and are just waiting for a building!

We recently started work on our biggest project to date – putting in a gravity fed clean water supply that will enable each of 3 villages to have several taps – and will also give our volunteers and our own school pure clean water. This is estimated to cost £15,000 when completed. We have had a couple of good donations that are enabling us to secure the catchment area and the first holding tank.

Men in the community digging for water

A friend has organised a large sponsored walk around Virginia Water Lake on Sunday 17th April and is hoping to attract over 100 people each walking for our water. I have sponsor form here if anyone would like to join us – or sponsor me if I can make it 

The 3 local chairmen from the villages around Uganda Lodge have formed and registered a CBO (Community Based Organisation) to support us and we are still working on setting up a local women’s group. Here in the UK the projects are supported by the registered charity LTHT and we are considering helping Denis and the CBO committee to set up a Ugandan NGO

How can you help or get involved?
You can come out to Uganda and work directly at the project and I guarantee that this will be the most memorable holiday you have ever had. Aside from working with our delightful young children you will have the opportunity to explore the local area, experience life in a typical African village and experience nearby tourist attractions such as Lake Bunyonyi or Queen Elizabeth National Park.

Our charity status enables our volunteers to take advantage of special discounted flights, so a visit to Uganda can cost far less than you would expect . All ages and skills are welcomed as with everyone pulling together we can do so much more for this community.

If you can’t get out there at this time to visit the project you can still help by sponsoring one or more of our children at just £3.50p a month and if you have some spare time I need someone to help me run this scheme.
On a larger scale, I need to get together a small group of people to help with organising and managing the whole project and planning our way forward, assisting with admin, updating the websites, helping with accounts, filling in grant applications, and perhaps becoming one of our charity trustees.
Over the past year the project has grown so much, and we are helping so many more people, but unfortunately I am yet another year older, so I am very aware that I should not be the only one who is co-ordinating everything.

I had an unexpected couple of days in hospital last year and that really brought this all home to me. From hospital I was calling my son to check arrival times of three different planes and names of three volunteers we were picking up at Entebbe airport. Then I had to call Uganda to pass on the information all on my mobile … how I could do with some more voluntary support here in UK!

Most of these village people in rural Uganda have such a very small income that they really do need outside help to bring some of their income-generating ideas to life. This will enable them to work their way out of poverty, and then as our charity says we will “Let them help themselves out of Poverty”

On my visits to Uganda I am always looking for ways to enable these rural farmers make a better income, and I also feel that eventually we should have something that actually supports the school so it could eventually become self-funding, even if our supply of sponsors dried up, or no-one was prepared to take over all the admin.

Ideas that could be talked about, and shown examples of to anyone that came out there would be Mushroom growing, fruit drying, brick-making, pottery making, basket and mat weaving, and all variety of small animal production – goats rabbits chickens ducks pigs bee-keeping, and introducing modern strains of fruit and vegetables.

Ann McCarthy

We have been fund raising for clean water for sometime now and we are nearly there. As you can see from this photograph digging for clean water is currently under way. The community has joined in and are doing most of the work themselves

Digging for Clean water

But they still need our help to pay for the work that they cannot do themselves and to that end we are inviting you to join us for a sponsored walk in VIRGINIA WATER SURREY on 17th APRIL 2011 AT 10:00AM the meeting point is at VIRGINIA WATER LAKE and the contact person is HILARY BROWELL

With our help the community will be able to have a glass of clean water each day, something we take for granted together we can make this happen. so come and have a walk around the beautiful lake in Virgina Water with us, bring a friend, the kids, bring your partner, your dog and most of all bring a picnic

If you are unable to join us but want to help please  make a donation below

Have you heard about Global Giving UK, a charity of charities? This is how the charity describes itself.

GlobalGiving.co.uk enables you to donate to well-vetted charity projects in regions such as Asia, Africa and South America, and to tangibly see the impact of your giving. Projects on GlobalGiving.co.uk are screened to ensure they meet a genuine charitable purpose, in areas such as education, health, economic development and the environment

I submitted our project  in South West Uganda and I can confirm that
the screening is the toughest I have ever been put through. We have made it through to the last round and we need your help to raise £1000 in order to remain in the competition.

Please make a donation at http://www.globalgiving.co.uk/pr/4100/proj4014a.html. Every little helps as the good folk at Tesco keep reminding us, so £1 or £2 or £5 will help us get to out target

Our purpose is to get clean water to folk in Ruhanga SW Uganda and provide education for village children under the age of 7

I hope you can help us