This year we are aiming to do something about the problem of water around the area of Nabikakala village in Kalungu District in Central Uganda. Water is so important not just for domestic use (drinking, washing, cooking), but is also vital for agriculture.
If you’re interested in thinking about the reasons for selecting this particular fundraising challenge, and the issues around the idea of the $2 a day statistic have a look at our post here, and comment.
The problem
Generally, there are two rainy seasons (roughly March-May and November-December) and two dry seasons (December-February and June-October) in Central Uganda. In recent years however, the seasons have become more erratic and so agricultural efforts have been affected. People plan their crops depending on when rain is expected. When the rain doesn’t come the crops can fail.
We believe part of the reason for the disrupted rainfall pattern has been the huge deforestation, and so a lot of our work focuses on tree planting. Our tree nursery, completed in October 2011, will help expand these efforts.
Outside the rainy season, the nearest water supply to Nabikakala is around 1km away, or further for many households. From here one jerrycan (20 litres) costs 500 Shillings. This may only be around 15p/22c but if you consider just how many litres of water you use per day this adds up! People in the UK for example are thought to use around 150 litres each day! The figure in the US is even higher.
At times we have found it difficult to provide enough water for our growing tree seedlings in the tree nursery – the costs and logistics of transporting enough water outside the rainy season are prohibitive.
Furthermore, much of our future work will require a more secure water supply, especially our agricultural training programmes such as our piggery or poultry demonstration farms.
What we plan to do about it
We hope to raise around 7m Shillings ( £1,900, $3,000) in order to construct a roof mounted rainwater collection system. Attached to this will be a large 10,000 litre water tank to store the water.
If we are able to raise a further 3.5 million Shillings we shall be able to attach a second tank which will help provide water for families in the surrounding area.
How can I get involved?
You can start by downloading the fundraising pack. In here you will find details of the project, guidelines for how to undertake the $2 a day challenge, a brief overview of the organisation, information on how to collect your money and how to get it to us. If you have any questions you can always just send us an email.
We’d encourage you to set-up a fundraising page on Virgin Money Giving. This allows people to sponsor you online, makes it much easier to get all the money together, and with the added Gift Aid we shall recieve we can raise even more money!
If you want to donate, you can either visit Virgin Giving and sponsor someone taking part in the challenge, or you can donate directly to us through PayPal.
Join us on Facebook or Google+ and keep up-to-date with how other people are getting on and what’s happening during the week. On Twitter use #2dollarsaday.
And, please email us to let us know if you’re going to take part. That way we can keep you personally up-to-date with you things progress.
But, even better than this you can try to enthuse people – tell everyone about your challenge and why you’re doing it. Try to persuade them to take part, or at the very least to sponsor you for it. Perhaps the most important thing you can do for us is to get other people involved. Just think, if you can persuade just one more person to do the challenge you could potentially double the money coming to Codewe. You’ll find some posters on this page. Just remember to ask permission before you put them up!
We’ll have links up to any blogs people are writing, so check them out. And if you are keen to do a blog then let us know. If you don’t know how to set one up, just get in touch with us.