Our Featured Gift – Rainwater Tanks

This year our featured gift is rainwater tank materials for Uganda. The World Health Organization advises that one in three people do not have access to safe drinking water – that’s 2.2 billion persons. Even worse is that less than half the global population has access to safe sanitation – Thats 4.2 billion of us. This extremely sad situation is responsible for over a million deaths each year. Many thousands of them under the age of five.

Access to safe drinking water is particularly challenging in Sub-Saharan Africa, and more so in rural areas. In this context, CWS is very proud to partner with the Centre for Community Solidarity (CCS) in the Isingiro district of rural Southwest Uganda. The mission of CCS in to improve the livelihoods of families supporting orphans as a result of the HIV AIDS pandemic in the 1980’s. To this day, there are still many grandparents and mothers who continue to be adversely affected by the impact of virus. In Isingiro, rainfall is largely caught in streams that flow to the valley floor. Yet, the villages where people live are commonly in the hills and it is a considerable distance to collect water. This activity is unsanitary, dangerous, inefficient and it keeps children from attending school.

Choose gifts of Hope

Charles Rwabambari serves the Centre for Community Solidarity in South West Uganda. He’s been there for over 25 years. The organization works with women supporting orphans and vulnerable children, many of whom were negatively impacted by Uganda’s extremely high incidence of HIV/AIDS back in the 1980s and 90s. Today, many households are still headed by grandparents or older children, due to premature death of parents.

Charles explains that the region where he lives has good rainfall during two rainy seasons; however, there is a little water available nearby for villagers. Traditionally women and children walked kilometers to rivers in the valley and then carted water on their heads back up the hill to their homes. This is dangerous work as predators, including crocodiles, and those who might be avoided. Equally, the task involves so much time and energy, which if saved could be put to far more productive uses such as childcare, schooling, food production, income generating activities.

Your gift will pay for materials and expertise to build a rainwater harvesting tank in driest Southwest Uganda. Through this gift, families and orphans devastated by AIDS will have safe water and sanitation. Children can go to school rather than walking many kilometers each day to collect dirt and polluted water from the river. Clean water is a game changer.

Life flourishes when we give gifts of hope

Most families in South West Uganda live in mud brick homes with corrugated iron roofs. With proper guttering, downpipes and a storage tank, rainwater could be constantly harvested and used for drinking, cooking and cleaning … all at the point of consumption. Yet, this solution costs more money to construct, and money is in short supply.

Through the support of CWS whanau, we have already funded the construction of over 14000 tanks in this region and there are currently another 100 in the pipeline over the next two years.

Your generosity will assist with employment in the region, but more importantly several thousands of people, including many venerable women, children and orphans will have their lives radically changed for good. Water tanks make the people of South West Uganda both self-sufficient and self-reliant.